ALLEGED CONTRADICTIONS OF THE BIBLE— #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10,

THERE ARE ABOUT FOUR DETAILED BOOKS YOU CAN BUY, CONCERNING THE ALLEGED  CONTRADICTIONS OF THE BIBLE.  AS JESUS SAID, THE SCRIPTURES CANNOT BE BROKEN!

THERE ARE NO REAL CONTRADICTIONS IN THE BIBLE. BUT THERE ARE MANY INDEED THAT SEEM TO CONTRADICT. HENCE IT TOOK ABOUT FOUR BOOKS TO COVER THEM ALL, FROM FOUR DIFFERENT INDIVIDUALS.

HERE I PRESENT SOME OF THOSE SO-CALLED CONTRADICTIONS.

YOU CAN PROBABLY OBTAIN THOSE FOUR BOOKS FROM AMAZON.COM OR AMAZON.CA

KEITH HUNT

FROM  THE  BOOK  "ALLEGED  DISCREPANCIES  OF  THE  BIBLE" by John Haley

Doctrinal Discrepancies #1

1. GOD—Omnipotence

God can do all things.

Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all

flesh: is there any thing too hard for

me?

Jeremiah 32:27

But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

Matthew 19:26

Cannot do some things. 

And the Lord was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.

Judges 1:19

It was imposssible for God to lie.

Hebrews 6:18

Omnipotence does not imply the power to do every conceivable thing, but the ability to do everything which is the proper object of power. For example, an omnipotent being could not cause a thing to be existent and nonexistent at the same instant. The very idea is self-contradictory and absurd. When it is said that God can do "all things," the phrase applies to those things only which involve no inconsistency or absurdity.

According to Voltaire, the quotation from Judges asserts that the Lord "could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley." The fact, however, is that the pronoun "he" refers to the nearest antecedent "Judah." Doubtless, the reason why Judah was not helped, at that time, to drive out the dwellers in the valley, was that too great success might have proved, as it often does, detrimental. God gave to Judah that degree of prosperity which, on the whole, was best for him.

The fourth text refers not to physical but to moral impossibility—such as is intended when we say, "it was impossible for Washington to betray his country." Our meaning, of course, is that it was incompatible with Washington's character and principles to be a traitor. In an analogous yet higher sense, it is "impossible" for God to utter falsehood.

God is tired and rests. 

In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.

Exodus 31:17

Is never weary.

The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary.

Isaiah 40:28

"Rested and was refreshed" is merely a vivid Oriental way of saying that he ceased from the work of creation, and took delight in surveying that work.

Dr. J. P. Thompson: "To rest here does not mean to seek repose from fatigue, but to suspend activity in a particular mode of operation, to cease from doing thus and so." Maimonides says that the word used in the parallel text, Exodus 20:11, properly means "ceased." With this explanation the Septuagint agrees.

Murphy: "'Refreshed' includes, at all events, the pure delight arising from the consciousness of a design accomplished, and from the contemplation of the intrinsic excellence of the work."

Omniscience

God knows all things. 

Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.

Psalm 139:2-4

I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins.

Jeremiah 17:10

Thou, Lord, which knowest the heart of all men.

Acts 1:24

Tries to find out some things. 

Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.

Genesis 22:12

The Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no,

Deuteronomy 8:2

All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Hebrews 4:13

Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Deuteronomy 13:3

In the texts to find some things, the language is accommodated to the human understanding, uttered, as it were, from man's point of view. By the testing process applied to Abraham and the Israelites, the knowledge which had lain hidden in the divine mind was revealed and verified.

The words addressed to Abraham, "Now I know that," etc., are equivalent' to saying, Now I have established by actual experiment that which I previously knew. I have demonstrated, made manifest by evident proof, my knowledge of thy character.

Murphy:"The original I have known denotes an eventual knowing, a discovering by actual experiment; and this observable probation of Abraham was necessary for the judicial eye of God, who is to govern the world, and for the conscience of man, who is to be instructed by practice as well as principle."

The language in Genesis may be illustrated as follows: A chemical professor, lecturing to his class, says: "Now I will apply an acid to this substance, and see what the result will be." He speaks in this way, although he knows perfectly well beforehand. Having performed the experiment, he says, "I now know that such and such results will follow." In saying this, he puts himself in the place of the class, and speaks from their standpoint.

The texts from Deuteronomy mean simply, The Lord hath dealt with thee as if he were ignorant, and wished to ascertain thy sentiments toward him; he hath put thee to as severe a test as would be requisite for discovering the secrets of thine heart. Such is the interpretation which men would give to his treatment of thee.

Forgets not his saints. 

Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.

Isaiah 49:15

Temporarily forgot Noah. 

And God remembered Noah.

Genesis 8:1

The latter text is shaped "after the manner of men." God left Noah in the ark, for many long months, as if he had forgotten him. He then "put forth a token of his remembrance."

Does not sleep.

Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

Psalm 121:4

Sometimes sleeps.

Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord?

arise, cast us not off forever.

Psalm 44:23

Sometimes God, in wisdom, defers the punishment of the wicked, and the deliverance of his people, so that he seems oblivious of both. He gives no sign of activity with reference to either, so that a superficial observer might say, "he sleeps." The silence, the long-suffering of God is attributed to indifference or lack of knowledge on his part.

Omnipresence

God everywhere present. 

Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.

Psalm 139:7-10

Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Isaiah 66:1

Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.

Jeremiah 23:23-24

Though they dig into hell, thence shall my hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down: and though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them.

Amos 9:2-3

Not in some places.

Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

Genesis 3:8

And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord.

Genesis 4:16

And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

Genesis 11:5

And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.

Genesis 18:20-21

The Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.

1 Kings 19:11-12

Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

Jonah 1:3

See Psalm 1:21 and 73:11.

The "presence of the Lord," from which Adam hid himself, and Cain and Jonah fled, was the visible and special manifestation of God to them at the time; or else it denotes the place where that manifestation was made.

According to Henderson, either may be meant.

The builders of Babel and the inhabitants of Sodom had pursued their wicked course, as far as divine mercy could permit. God had been far away from these corrupt men; he was "not in all their thoughts." He took the sword of justice and "came down" into the sphere of their consciousness, in a signal and terrible manner.

Rabbi Schelomo strikingly observes that these texts represent God as "coming down from his throne of mercies to his throne of judgment"—as if mercy were a more serene, exalted, and glorious attribute than justice. Such expressions as "God came down," the Jewish writers term "the tongue, or language, of the event"—that is, the proper interpretation of the event, the lesson it was designed to teach. In such cases, God's acts are translated into words. The "language of the event" is, God comes down, interposes, to frustrate certain mad schemes of ambition.

Maimonides acutely suggests that, since the word "ascend" is properly applied to the mind when it contemplates noble and elevated objects, and "descend" when it turns toward things of a low and unworthy character, it follows that when the Most High turns his thoughts toward man for any purpose, it may be said that God "descends" or "comes down."

Prof. Murphy thinks that, as the Lord, after watching over Noah during the deluge, had withdrawn his visible and gracious presence from the earth, when he again directly interposes in human affairs, there is propriety in saying, "The Lord came down."

God was not in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire; that is, he did not, upon that occasion, choose any one of these as the symbol of his presence, as his medium of communication and manifestation. He did not speak in or by these, but by "the still small voice."

Herder: "The vision would seem designed to teach the prophet, who, in his fiery zeal for reformation, would change everything by stormy violence, the gentle movements of God's providence, and to exhibit the mildness and longsuffering, of which, the voice spoke to Moses. Hence the beautiful change in the phenomena of the vision."

Keith Hunt - the shocking truth to many is that in some cases God has willed Himself not to know everything going on with man on earth. He is told such and such, by angels, and He has willed Himself to "come down" in person to see if it is indeed as He has been told, as bad as it has been told to Him. 

Also; God is or can be everywhere if He desires by His Spirit. He has the power to be everywhere, so you cannot hide from Him.

Eternity

God from everlasting. 

Before  the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God.

Psalm 90:2

His origin in time.

God came from Teman, and the Holy

One from mount Paran.

Habakkuk3:3

The second text has, singularly enough, been adduced as teaching that God originated in time.

The passage simply refers to the wonderful displays of divine power and glory which the Israelites witnessed in connection with the giving of the law; Teman and Paran being "the regions to the south of Palestine generally, as the theatre of the divine manifestations to Israel." This is clear from the parallel text, "The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints; from his right hand went a fiery law for them."

Unity

God is One.

Hear O Israel: The Lord our God is

one Lord.

Deuteronomy 6:4

See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me.

Deuteronomy 32:39

I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me.

Isaiah 45:5

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God.

John 17:3

But to us there it but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him.

1 Corinthians 8:6

Plurality of Divine Beings.

And God said, Let us make man in our

image after our likeness.

Genesis 1:26

And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.

Genesis 3:22

And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Manure: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; and he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, the three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, and said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight.

Genesis 18:1-3

Worship him, all ye gods.

Psalm 97:7

The Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me.

Isaiah 48:16

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

1 John 5:7

(THIS VERSE IS NOT IN THE ORIGINAL GREEK MSS - SEE  MODERN BIBLE COMMENTARIES - Keith Hunt)

The first two texts from Genesis have the word for "God" (Elohim) in the plural form. Gesenius considers this a "plural of excellence or majesty"; Nord-heimer, a "plural of preeminence"; Baumgarten, a "numerical plural, originally denoting God and angels together"; Delitzsch, a "plural of intensity"; Fuerst, as used "because the ancients conceived of the Deity as an aggregate of many infinite forces." Bush thinks the plural implies "greater fullness, emphasis, and intensity of meaning"; Lange takes it as denoting "intense fullness," and Heng-stenberg says, "it calls attention to the infinite riches and the inexhaustible fulness contained in the one divine being." Ewald: "It was an antique usage, more especially in this Semitic tribe, to designate God, as also every other superior, externally by a plural form, by which no more than the sense of a kind of dignity and reverence was simply expressed."

As to the plural pronouns, "us" and "our," which God here employs, Aben Ezra thinks that he addresses the Intelligences; Philo, Delitzsch, and others, that he spoke to the angels; Davidson, with Sedaiah a Gaon, that he spoke like a sovereign, "We the king": Kalisch, Tuch, and Bush in substance deem it the plural "employed in deliberations and self-exhortations"; Maimonides asserts that God is addressing the earth or the nature already created; Keil that he is speaking of and with himself in the plural number, "with reference to the fulness of the divine powers and essences which he possesses." On the other hand, Lange thinks the phraseology may "point to the germinal view of a distinction in the divine personality," and Murphy that it "indicates a plurality of persons or hypostases in the Divine Being."

We thus see that the above expressions are susceptible of several reasonable interpretations consistent with monotheistic principles.

(THE SIMPLE TRUTH IS THAT GOD HAS ALWAYS BEEN PLURAL IN PERSONS - ONE GODHEAD BUT MORE THAN ONE PERSON - THE ONE WHO WE NOW KNOW AS THE FATHER, AND THE ONE WE NOW KNOW AS THE SON. BOTH WERE ETERNAL, BOTH MAKE UP THE ONE GODHEAD, AS PROVED BY THE NEW TESTAMENT - Keith Hunt)

With reference to Abraham and the "three men"-—-super-human beings in the form of man—the patriarch appeared to single out one as preeminent among the three, whom he addressed as "My Lord." Keil says, "Jehovah and two angels: all three in human form." Murphy: "It appears that of the three men, one, at all events, was the Lord, who, when the other two went towards Sodom, remained with Abraham while he made his intercession for Sodom, and afterward he also went his way." Lange: "Abraham instantly recognizes among the three the one whom he addresses as the Lord in a religious sense, who afterwards appears as Jehovah, and was clearly distinguished from the two accompanying angels."

(YES ONE WAS YHVH - LORD - GOD - WHO CAME IN THE FORM OF PHYSICAL MAN - THE MEMBER OF THE GODHEAD WHO BECAME THE JESUS CHRIST OF NT [THE NEW TESTAMENT]. AS THE NT SHOWS NO ONE HAS EVER SEEN OR HEARD GOD THE FATHER AT ANY TIME - Keith Hunt)

As to the quotation from Psalms, Maimonides and David Kimchi say that the word "Elohim," in this case, means "angelic powers." Others that it means "magistrates" or "judges," as in Exodus 22:8-9, 28. Alexander and Hengsten-berg explain it as meaning "false gods"; Delitzsch, as "the superhuman powers deified by the heathen." The Syriac Peshito reads, "all ye his angels."

Isaiah 48:16 is ambiguous in the original. It may mean "Jehovah and his Spirit have sent me," or "Jehovah hath sent both me and his Spirit." So Delitzsch: "The Spirit is not spoken of here as joining in the sending. . . . The meaning is, that it is also sent, i.e. sent in and with the servant of Jehovah, who is speaking here."

First John 5:7 is a spurious passage. It is found in no Greek manuscript before the fifteenth or sixteenth century, and in no early version. It is rejected by Alford, Abbot, Bleek, Scrivener, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Wordsworth, and most modern critics.

It should be observed that the texts of the first series teach unequivocally and designedly the unity of God, while those of the second series—intended primarily to teach other truths—are fairly explicable in harmony with the former class.

Immateriality

God, a Spirit.

A spirit hath not flesh and bones.

Luke 24:39

God is a Spirit.

John 4:24

Has a material body and organs.

Tables of stone, written with the finger

of God.

Exodus 31:18

He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust.

Psalm 91:4

He had horns coming out of his hand. 

Habakkuk 3:4

These texts, which represent God as having hands, fingers, wings, feathers, horns, and the like, are simply the bold figures and startling hyperboles in which the Orientals are wont to indulge. They would never, for a moment, think of being understood literally in using them.

"Finger of God" is his direct agency: his "wings" and "feathers" are his protecting care, set forth by an allusion to the bird hovering over and guarding her tender young.

Henderson, Delitzsch, Noyes, and Cowles agree substantially in rendering Habakkuk 3:4, "Rays streamed from his hand"—a decided improvement upon our version.

Immutability

God, unchangeable.

God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?

Numbers 23:19

And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.

1 Samuel 15:29

I the Lord have spoken it: it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent.

Ezekiel 24:14

For I am the Lord, I change not.

Malachi 3:6

The Father of lights, with whom is no

variableness, neither shadow of turning.

James 1:17

Repents, and changes his plans. 

I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way. . . . And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.

Exodus 33:3,15,17,14

Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein.

Numbers 14:30

The Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me forever: but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me. . . Behold the days come, that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house, that there shall not be an old man in thine house. 1 Samuel 2:30-31

Then came the word of the Lord onto Samuel, saying: It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments.

1 Samuel 15:10-11

In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the Lord. . . . And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord. And I will add unto thy days fifteen years.

2 Kings 20:1-2, 4-6

Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord, thou art gone backward: therefore shall I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting.

Jeremiah 15:6

And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

Jonah 3:10

In respect to his essence, his attributes, his moral character, and his inflexible determination to punish sin and reward virtue, God is "without variableness or shadow of turning."

Again, some of his declarations are absolute and unconditional; the greater part, however, including promises and threatenings, turn upon conditions either expressed or implied. The following passage is a very explicit statement of a great principle in the divine administration—of God's plan or rule of conduct in dealing with men: "At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; if that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; if it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them." Jeremiah 18:7-10. Here is brought clearly to view the underlying condition, which, if not expressed, is implied, in God's promises and threats. Whenever God, in consequence of a change of character in certain persons, does not execute the threats or fulfill the promises he had made to them, the explanation is obvious. In every such case, the change is in man, rather than in God. For example, God has promised blessings to the righteous and threatened the wicked with punishment. Suppose a righteous man should turn and become wicked. He is no longer the man whom God promised to bless. He occupies a different relation toward God. The promise was made to an entirely different character.

On the other hand, a wicked man repents and becomes good. He is not now the individual whom God threatened. He sustains another relation to his Maker. He has passed out of the sphere of the divine displeasure into that of the divine love. Yet all this while, there is no change in God. His attitude toward sin and sinners, on the one hand, and toward goodness and the good on the other, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. It is precisely because God is immutable that his relation to men, and his treatment of them, vary with the changes in their character and conduct. In a word, he changes because he is unchangeable.

A homely illustration may be permitted. Suppose a rock is to located at the center of a circle one mile in diameter. A man starts to walk around the circle. On starting he is due north from the rock, which consequently bears due south from him. After travelling awhile, he comes to be due east from the rock, and that due west from him. Now the rock does not move, yet its direction from the man changes with every step he takes. In a somewhat analogous manner, God's aspect and feelings toward men change as they change. That is, in the words of Whately, "A change effected in one of two objects having a certain relation to each other, may have the same practical result as if it had taken place in the other."

Wollaston: "The respect or relation which lies between God, considered as an unchangeable being, and one that is humble, and supplicates, and endeavors to qualify himself for mercy, cannot be the same with that which lies between the same unchangeable God, and one that is obstinate, and will not supplicate, or endeavor to qualify himself. . . . By an alteration in ourselves, we may alter the relation or respect lying between him and us." To sum up, if man changes, the very immutability of God's character requires that his feelings should change toward the changed man.

Murphy: "To go to the root of the matter, every act of the divine will, of creative power, or of interference with the order of nature, seems at variance with inflexibility of purpose. But, in the first place, man has a finite mind, and a limited sphere of observation, and therefore is not able to conceive or express thoughts or acts exactly as they are in God, but only as they are in himself. Secondly, God is a spirit, and therefore has the attributes of personality, freedom, and holiness; and the passage before us is designed to set forth these in all the reality of their action, and thereby to distinguish the freedom of the eternal mind from the fatalism of inert matter. Hence, thirdly, these statements represent real processes of the divine Spirit, analogous at least to those of the human."

Those passages which speak of God as "repenting" are figurative. They are the "language of the event," the divine acts interpreted in words. We see an artist executing a picture. Having completed, he surveys it, then, without a word, takes his brush and effaces it. We say at once, "he repented that he had made it." We thus interpret his action; we assume that such were his feelings. So God performed such outward acts with reference to the antediluvians and others, that, if they had been performed by a man, we should say "he repented of what he had previously said or done." Such is the construction we should naturally put upon his conduct. The language is evidently accommodated to our ideas of things.

Dr. Davidson: "When repentance is attributed to God, it implies a change in his mode of dealing with men, such as would indicate on their part a change of purpose."

Andrew Fuller: "God, in order to address himself impressively to us, frequently personates a creature, or speaks to us after the manner of men. It maybe doubted whether the displeasure of God against the wickedness of men could have been fully expressed in literal terms, or with anything like the effect produced by metaphorical language."

Prof. Mansel: "The representations of God which scripture presents to us may be shown to be analogous to those which the laws of our mind require us to form; and, therefore such as may naturally be supposed to have emanated from the same Author."

(ALL  MISS  A  MOST  IMPORTANT  TRUTH:  GOD  HAS  AT  TIMES  WILLED  HIMSELF  NOT  TO  KNOW  CERTAIN  THINGS;  AS  THAT  WICKEDNESS  OF  MAN  WOULD  BECOME  SO  GREAT  IN  THE  EARTH;  HE  THEN  HAD  THE  EMOTION  OF  REPENTING  HE  HAD  MAD  MAN  -  Keith Hunt)

God's threat not to accompany the Israelites was unquestionably conditional. As Scott says, "such declarations rather express what God might justly do, what it would become him to do, and what he would do, were it not for some intervening consideration, than his irreversible purpose; and always imply a reserved exception in case the party offending were truly penitent."

As to the quotation from 1 Samuel 2, by Eli's father's house we are evidently to understand the house of Aaron, from whom Eli was descended through Ithamar. It was Aaron, the tribe-father of Eli, who received the promise that his house should walk forever before the Lord in priestly service. This promise, obviously conditional, was henceforth withdrawn with regard to a certain branch of Aaron's family, and on account of the sinfulness of that branch. So far as Eli and his sons were concerned, the Lord would now cut off the arm of Aaron's house.

By the expression, "be it far from me," God does not, says Keil, revoke his previous promise, but simply denounces a false trust therein as irreconcilable with his holiness. That promise would only be fulfilled so far as the priests themselves honored the Lord in their office.

The covenant made with Phinehas was not abrogated by the temporary transfer of the high priest's office from the line of Eleazar to that of Ithamar, since, as Keil reminds us, this covenant contemplated an "everlasting priesthood" and not specially the high priesthood; and the descendants of Phinehas meantime retained the ordinary priesthood.

When Abiathar, the last high priest—Eli being the first—of the line of Ithamar, was deposed by Solomon, the office of high priest was restored to the line of Phinehas and Eleazar.

In the case of Hezekiah, the divine declaration was clearly a conditional one. Yet, as Vitringa happily suggests, "The condition was not expressed, because God would draw it from him as a voluntary act."

God satisfied with his works.

God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold it was very good.

Genesis 1:31

Dissatisfied with them. 

And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

Genesis 6:6

This case has already been explained.

(BUT NOT CORRECTLY - GOD HAS WILLED HIMSELF NOT TO KNOW CERTAIN THINGS; HENCE HE CAN THEN SHOW THE EMOTION OF SORROW AND GRIEF, AS WE WOULD PUT IT "REPENTING" OF DOING THINGS AS HE DID.  IT  WAS  GOOD  HE  CREATED  MAN  AT  THE  TIME    HE  DID  AS  MAN  WAS  GOOD  AND  INNOCENT.  LATER  SEEING  AND  COMING  TO  KNOW  HOW  EVIL  MAN  HAD  BECOME,  WILLING  HIMSELF  NOT  TO  KNOW  THIS  BEFORE-HAND,  IT  REPENTED AND  GRIEVED  HIM  IN  HIS  MIND  AND  HEART  - Keith Hunt)

Will destroy.

And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air. Genesis 6:7

Will not destroy.

Neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

Genesis 8:21

One of these utterances was made before, the other after, the Flood. Both declarations were strictly fulfilled.

…………………

TO  BE  CONTINUED

Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible  #2

Will abhor

And my soul shall abhor you.

Leviticus 26:30

Will not abhor

I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them.

Leviticus 26:44

The condition is stated plainly in the intervening verse, the fortieth. If they should confess their iniquity, the Lord's "abhorrence" of them would be changed into mercy toward them. The whole context of these passages is hypothetical.

Permission granted

And God came unto Balaam at night, and said unto him, If the men come to call thee, rise up, and go with them; but yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do.

Numbers 22:20

Permission withheld

And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab. And God's anger was kindled because he went.

Numbers 22:21-22

The permission given to Balaam was conditional; "If the men come to call thee," etc. Balaam, in his eagerness, "loving the wages of unrighteousness," does not appear to have waited for the men to call him; instead of this, he volunteered to go with them. Hengstenberg 31 observes that Balaam "immediately availed himself of the permission of God to go with the Moabites, which he could only do with the secret purpose to avoid the condition which had thereby been imposed upon him, 'The word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do.'" Again, "since God's anger was directed against Balaam's going with a definite intention, it involves no contradiction, when afterwards his going was permitted."

Keil thinks that God's anger was not kindled till near the close of Balaam's journey, and then by the feelings he was cherishing. A "longing for wages and honor" caused him to set out, and "the nearer he came to his destination, under the guidance of the distinguished Moabitish ambassadors, the more was his mind occupied with the honors and riches in prospect; and so completely did they take possession of his heart, that he was in danger of casting to the winds the condition which had been imposed upon him by God." Hence the divine anger was awakened.

Aben Ezra and Bechayai 32 say that the Lord had already manifested his will to Balaam that he should not go to Balak, but as if imagining God to be

……

31 History of Balaam and his Prophecies, pp. 345, 372.

32 Menasseh ben Israel's Conciliator, i. 265.

……

able, he again inquired if he might go, when the Lord, who impedes not the ways of men, permitted it—If, knowing my will, you still choose to go, do so. Hence his actual going displeased the Lord.

Henry: "As God sometimes denies the prayers of his people in love, so sometimes he grants the desires of the wicked in wrath."

Inaccessibility

God approachable

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Psalm 46:1

It is good for me to draw near to God. 

Psalm 73:28

The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.

Psalm 145:18

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.

James 4:8

Not accessible.

Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? why hidest thou thyself in times  of trouble?

Psalm 10:1

Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.

Isaiah 45:15

Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.

Lamentations 3:44

Are ye come to inquire of me? As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you.

Ezekiel20:3

Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto.

1 Timothy 6:16

"Obviously, the expression "draw near to God" is not to be taken in the literal sense. In relation to an omnipresent being there can be, strictly speaking, nearness, no remoteness. God is as near to one as to another. We "draw nigh" in a figurative sense, by prayer and devout meditation, by engaging in spiritual communion with him.

Psalm 10:1 and Lamentations 3:44 express a degree of impatience that God does not instantly appear, that he sees fit to leave his people temporarily in affliction.

Isaiah 45:15, Delitzsch renders, "Thou art a mysterious God," and says the meaning is, "a God who guides with marvellous strangeness the history of the nations of the earth, and by secret ways, which human eyes can never discern, conducts all to a glorious issue."

Ezekiel 20:3 was addressed to men who, while cherishing hypocrisy and wickedness in their hearts, attempted to inquire of God. Such inquirers he ever sternly repels.

First Timothy 6:16, "Dwelling in light unapproachable," is a statement of the unquestionable truth, that no mortal can literally approach God, endure the ineffable splendor of his presence, or fathom the mysteries of his existence.

No one of these texts intimates that men may not draw near to God, in the only possible way—by penitence and prayer; no one of them denies that he is accessible unto all that "call upon him in truth."

All seekers find.

If thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.

1 Chronicles 28:9

I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain.

Isaiah 45:19

I am sought of them that asked not for me, I am found of them that sought me not.

Isaiah 65:1

He that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Matthew 7:8

Some do not find.

Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.

Isaiah 55:6

Strive to enter in at the straight gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.

Luke 13:24

Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come.

John 7:34

Andrew Fuller 33 remarks: "Seeking, in Matthew, refers to the application for mercy through Jesus Christ, in the present life; but in Luke, it denotes that anxiety which the workers of iniquity will discover to be admitted into heaven at the last day. . . . Every one that seeketh mercy in the name of Jesus, while the door is open succeeds; but he that seeketh it not till the door is shut will not succeed."

The text from John was addressed to the unbelieving Jews who would not seek Christ, at the right time, nor with the right spirit. Hence, their future seeking would be unavailing. Alford: "My bodily presence will be withdrawn from you; I shall be personally in a place inaccessible to you."

These texts contain nothing whatever to debar those who seek the Savior at the proper time, and in the right way.

(YES  IT  IS  SEEKING  WHEN  CALLED  BY  GOD;  IF  YOU  ANSWER  THE  CALL  YOU  WILL  FIND.  THEN  SEEKING  IN  THE  WRONG  WAY  YOU  WILL  NOT  FIND  -  Keith Hunt)

Early seekers successful. 

Those that seek me early shall find me. 

Proverbs 8:17

Some fail to find.

They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me.

Proverbs 1:28

……

33Works. 675.

……

These two texts, as the connection evinces, point to entirely different classes of persons. The text from Proverbs 8 is taken by many commentators as applicable to the young who seek God. Zockler 34 says the word here rendered "seek early," coming from a noun denoting the morning dawn, "signifies to sees something while it is yet early, in the obscurity of the morning twilight, and so illustrates eager, diligent seeking." In this opinion, many critics substantially concur. 35 On this hypothesis, the sense is, "Those who seek me in youth shall find me."

(I  LIKE  THE  "ILLUSTRATES  EAGER,  DILIGENT  SEEKING"  FOR  GOD  DOES  NOT  ALWAYS  CALL  WHEN  YOUNG  OF  AGE  -  Keith Hunt)

The other text, in the first chapter, rendered by Stuart, "They shall earnestly seek me, but they shall not find me," contemplates obstinate and hardened transgressors. They are described 36 as "fools" and "scorners," are said to have hated knowledge, to have not chosen the fear of the Lord, and to have despised all his reproof. The two texts may, therefore, be paraphrased thus: "Those who early and earnestly seek, shall find me; but impenitent rebels who, in the hour and from the fear of retribution, earnestly seek, shall not find me." Properly explained, there is not the slightest collision between the two texts.

Inscrutability

God's attributes revealed

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork.

Psalm 19:1

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse. 

Romans 1:20

They are unsearchable

Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?

Job 11:7

His greatness is unsearchable.

Psalm 145:3

Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.

Psalm 147:5

There is no searching of his understanding.

Isaiah 40:28

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

Romans 11:33

Neither of the affirmative texts intimates that God can be weighed or measured, or the depths of Deity explored by mortals.

……

34 In Lange on Proverbs 1:28.

35 So B. Davidson, Noyes, Parkhurst, Umbreit, Opitius, Stockius, Moore, and Frey.

36 See verses 22, 29, and 30.

……

Psalm 19:1 asserts that the heavens above us, the "upper deep," adorned with sun and moon and stars, "Forever singing, as they shine, 'The hand that made us is divine," are a proof and illustration of the wisdom, power, and benevolence of the Creator. They thus declare his glory.

Romans 1:20 merely implies that the invisible attributes of God, particularly his eternal power and divinity, are clearly revealed in his works. Aristotle has a strikingly similar observation, "God, who is invisible to every mortal being, is seen by his works."

Stuart: "God's invisible attributes, at least some of them, are made as it were visible, i.e. are made the object of clear and distinct apprehension, by reason of the natural creation."

His wonders recounted

That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works.

Psalm 26:7

Hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works.

Psalm 71:17

I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works.

Psalm 73:28

Innumerable

Which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number.

Job 9:10

Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them they are more than can be numbered.

Psalm 40:5

These affirmative passages are not to be rigidly interpreted. It is idle to explain the language of emotion according to a strict literalism. David neither asserts nor implies his ability to enumerate and set forth all, in the absolute sense, of God's wonderful works. His meaning is: To the extent of my ability I declare thy marvellous deeds. None of the foregoing texts impinge upon the unsearchableness of God, as to his essence and mode of existence.

Invisibility

God seen many times

And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

Genesis 32:30

Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Na-dab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel: and they saw the God of Israel.

Exodus 24:9-10

Not seen by man

And he said, Thou canst not see my face; for there shall no man see me, and live. Exodus 33:20

Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire.

Deuteronomy 4:15

And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.... And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.

Exodus 33:11, 23

And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.

Judges 13:22

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

Isaiah 6:1

I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.

Daniel 7:9

No man hath seen God at any time.

John 1:18

Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.

John 5:37

The King eternal, immortal, invisible. 1 Timothy 1:17

Whom no man hath seen, nor can see. 1 Timothy 6:16

Some of the cases mentioned in the first series of texts—those of Isaiah and Daniel, for example—were visions, in which men "saw" the Deity, not with the physical eye, but with that of the soul. In most of the instances, however, something more real and objective seems to be intended. In some cases, it is said merely that "God" was seen; in others, an "angel" appears, who is identified, during the process of the narrative, with Jehovah.

It is beyond question that God-—-as a spirit—as he is in himself-—is never visible to men. In what sense, then, may he be said to have been "seen"?

He might assume temporarily, and for wise purposes, some visible form in which to manifest himself to his creatures. Cases of this kind are termed "theophanies," in which, as Hengstenberg 37 says, God appears "under a light vesture of corporeity, in a transiently-assumed human form." This seems in some instances the best solution.

He might be seen, as we may say, by proxy—in his accredited representative. This explanation is a very ancient one. In the Samaritan Pentateuch in the narratives of divine appearances, it is not God himself—-Jehovah—who is mentioned as the Person appearing, even where this is the case in the Jewish

……

37 Genuineness of Pent. ii. 370.

……

text, but always an Angel. 38 So, in the Chaldee Targum, Jacob's language stands, "I have seen the Angel of God face to face."

It is a striking fact that, in many instances, this "representative Angel" claims for himself divine honors and purposes, and accepts divine worship. 39 Respecting the nature and rank of this celestial messenger, opinion is divided. 40 Augustine, Jerome, the Romish theologians, the Socinians, Hofmann, Tholuck, Delitzsch, Kurtz, and others, hold that he was a "created angel" who personated Jehovah, acted as his proxy or nuncius. We know that it is not uncommon for a monarch to depute some nobleman to act as his proxy or representative for the time being with all needful powers and privileges.

The early church, the old Protestant theologians, Bush, Hengstenberg, Keil, Havernick, Lange, Wordsworth, with others, hold that this Angel was the Logos, the second Person in the Trinity, who temporarily assumed the human form, and thus "foreshadowed the incarnation." In this manner God was seen in his Son. On any one of these hypotheses, there is no difficulty, for God was seen, and yet not seen.

In his infinite and incomprehensible essence, as we have just said, Jehovah is seen by no mortal; but in a theophany, in his representative Angel, in the Logos who is "the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person," the "King eternal, immortal, invisible" has often been seen.

Little need be said concerning the specific cases above mentioned. The Lord spoke with his servant Moses "face to face," that is, familiarly. Two men may speak face to face in darkness, neither seeing the other.

As to Exodus 33:23, Keil says: "As the inward nature of man manifests itself in his face, and the sight of his back gives only an imperfect and outward view of him, so Moses saw only the back, and not the face of Jehovah."

Andrew Fuller:41 "The difference here seems to arise from the phrase 'face of God.' In the one case, it is expressive of great familiarity, compared with former visions and manifestations of the divine glory; in the other, of a fullness of knowledge of this glory, which is incompatible with our mortal state, if not with our capacity as creatures."

Murphy: "My face is my direct, immediate, intrinsic, self. . . . My back is my averted, mediate, extrinsic self, visible to man in my works, my word, and my personal manifestations to my people."

……

38 Bleek, Introduction to Old Testament, ii. 393.

39 See Genesis 18:10,14; 22:12; 31:11, 13; Acts 7:30, 32.

40 Lange on Genesis, pp. 386-391.

41 Works, i. 674 (edition in 3 vols.)

……

Bush: "Nothing could be more expressive than the mode adopted to convey the intimation, that while a lower degree of disclosure could be made to him, a higher could not." An important truth is couched in highly symbolical language.

As to the apparent collision between John 5:37 and those passages which represent the voice of God as heard at times by men, 42 the citation from John may be taken as asserting that no mortal ever saw the form or heard the voice which is peculiar to God. Or, as Alford suggests, the language may have been intended to apply to those persons then present, "Ye have not heard his voice, as your fathers did at Sinai; nor have ye seen his visional appearance, as did the prophets."

On either interpretation there is no difficulty.

(ALL  SOMEWHAT  MADE  COMPLICATED.  THE  SIMPLE  TRUTH  IS  THE  GODHEAD  IS  MORE  THAN  ONE  PERSON.  THE  ONE  WE  CALL  THE  FATHER,  HAS  NEVER  BEEN  SEEN  OR  HEARD  BY  ANYONE.  THE  ONE  CALLED  THE  SON  OF  GOD,  JESUS  THE  CHRIST,  THE  SECOND  MEMBER  OF  THE  GODHEAD,  WAS  THE  GOD  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT.  HE  IS  GOD  AS  THE  FATHER  IS  GOD. HE  APPEARED  AT  TIMES  IN  HUMAN  FORM  TO  MAN,  SO  COULD  BE  SEEN  AND  TOUCHED,  SPEAK  TO,  HAVE  A  MEAL  WITH,  MEN/WOMEN;  AND  WAS  SEEN  IN  HIS  GLORY  STATE  BY  MOSES  BUT  ONLY  HIS  BACK,  AS  NO  MAN  CAN  SEE  THE  GOLRY  FACE  OF  GOD  AND  LIVE,  AS  MOSES  WAS  TOLD.  HE  ALSO  APPEARED  AS  BEING  CALLED   AN  ANGEL.  ALL  THIS  PROVED  BY  MY  STUDIES  ON  THIS  WEBSITE.  AND  THE  GODHEAD  WAS  SEEN  IN  VISION  AS  DANIEL  SAW;  IN  THE  MIND'S  EYE  OR  LIKE  A  DREAM  VISION  -  Keith Hunt)

Similitude of God seen

The similitude of the Lord shall he behold.

Numbers 12:8

No similitude visible

And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude.

Deuteronomy 4:12

The first text refers to Moses, the second to the people in general. He saw certain manifestations of God which they were not permitted to see.

Holiness

God the Author of evil

I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.

Isaiah 45:7

Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you.

Jeremiah 18:11

Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?

Lamentations 3:38

Not the Author of evil

A God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

Deuteronomy 32:4

For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.

Psalm 5:4

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil.

Jeremiah 29:11

……

42 See Genesis 3:8; Exodus 19:19; Deuteronomy 5:26; Job 38:1.

……

Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live.

Ezekiel 20:25

Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it ?

Amos 3:6

Shall there be evil in a city, Lord hath not done it?

Amos 3:6

For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace.

1 Corinthians 14:33

"Evil," mentioned in the first, second, third, and fifth texts, means natural, and not moral evil, or sin. Henderson says, "affliction, adversity"; Calvin, "afflictions, wars, and other adverse occurrences."

When Pompeii is buried by the volcano, Jerusalem destroyed in war, London depopulated by the plague, Lisbon overthrown by an earthquake, Chicago devastated by fire; it is God who sends these "evils" or calamities.

In Psalm 5:4, "evil," as the parallelism shows, is iniquity; in Jeremiah 29:11, it means punitive displeasure.

As to Ezekiel 20:25, the "statutes" which were "not good" are variously referred.

Calvin, Vitringa, and Havernick say the customs and practices, the idolatrous and corrupting rites, of heathenism, to which God gave over the Jews as a punishment for their ungodly disposition.43

Fairbairn: "The polluted customs and observances of heathenism." Wordsworth: "These evil practices are called 'statutes' and 'judgments,' in verse 18, like the 'statutes of Omri' in Micah 6:16."44 Umbreit and Kurtz say, "the liturgical laws which Jehovah prescribed, but which the people abused for heathen purposes."

We know that abused blessings may prove the heaviest curses. May not the meaning be that these "statutes," though good in their original design and adaptation, proved "not good" in their result, through the disobedience of those to whom they were addressed? Are not Paul's words, "And the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death," 45 explanatory of the text under consideration?

Wines 46 takes the meaning to be, laws not absolutely the best, but relatively so. This view of the meaning and force of the text is confirmed by the words of our Savior. He has told us that Moses tolerated divorce among the Jews, because of the hardness of their hearts. If the Jews of Moses' time had been less hardhearted, several of his statutes would have been different. These statutes

……

43 Compare Psalm 81:12; Romans 1:24-25; 2 Thessalonians 2:11.

44 Compare "statutes of the heathen," 2 Kings 17:8.

45 Romans 7:10.

46 Commentary on Laws of Ancient Hebrews, p. 119.

……

were intended to meet special exigencies, but were not designed for universal application.

Solon, being asked whether he had furnished the best laws for the people of Athens, replied, "I have given them the best that they were able to bear."

"When divine wisdom," observes Montesquieu, 47 "said to the Jews, 'I have given you precepts which are not good,' this signifies that they had only a relative goodness; and this is the sponge which wipes out all the difficulties which are to be found in the law of Moses."

Whichever interpretation maybe adopted, none of the above texts, nor any others when properly explained, sanction the revolting proposition that God is the author of sin.

(GOD  IS  SAID  TO  CREATE  EVIL  ETC.  BECAUSE  GOD  ALLOWS  ALL  THINGS  IN  THIS  PRESENT  AGE  OF  MAN.  GOD  IS  THE  ALMIGHTY,  THE  ONE  WHO  IS  IN  CHARGE  OF  EVERYTHING,  AS  ALLOWING  OR  PERMITTING  ALL  THINGS  THAT  THIS  PRESENT  AGE  OFFERS.  SO  IN  THAT  SENSE  GOD  TAKES  RESPONSIBILITY  FOR  ALL  THINGS.  HE  COULD  STOP  ANYTHING  AT  ANY  TIME,  IF  HE  SO  DESIRED.  BUT  HE  DOES  NOT  IN  THIS  AGE  OF  MAN  AND  SATAN.  GOD  DID  ALLOW  CERTAIN  LAWS  LIKE  EASY  DIVORCE  UNDER  MOSES,  LAWS  NOT  THE  ULTIMATE  BEST,  BUT  ACCOMMODATED  THE  PEOPLE  FOR  THE  HARDNESS  OF  THEIR  HEART.  HE  ALSO  AT  TIMES  HANDED  PEOPLE  OVER  TO  LAWS,  CUSTOMS,  TRADITIONS,  OF  THE  SPIRITUALLY  BLINDED  MINDS  OF  MEN  AND  NATIONS  -  Keith Hunt)

God jealous

I the Lord thy God am a jealous God. 

Exodus 20:5

The anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man.

Deuteronomy 29:20

For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

Psalm 78:58

Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen.

Ezekiel 36:5

God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth.

Nahum 1:2

Free from jealousy

The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.

Psalm 145:8-9

For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.

Proverbs 6:34

Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before [jealousy]?48

Proverbs 27:4

Jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.

Canticles 8:6

The words "jealous" and "jealousy" are each used in a good and a bad sense. 49 Applied to God, they denote that he is intensely solicitous for his own character and honor, that he does not tolerate rivalry of any kind. An infinitely wise and holy Monarch cannot be indifferent as to the loyalty of his subjects.

Keil regards the terms as implying that God "will not transfer to another the honor that is due to himself, nor tolerate the worship of any other god"; and Bush, as denoting "a peculiar sensitiveness to everything that threatens to trench upon the honor, reverence, and esteem that he knows to be due to himself. The term will appear still more significant if it be borne in mind that idolatry in the

……

47 Spirit of Laws, B. 19, c. 21.

48 Zockler says the original word denotes here, not "envy," but plainly "jealousy."

49 "In the Hebrew, jealousy, envy, zeal, and anger may be expressed by a single term, [Hebrew  given]; Fuerst and Gesenius.

……

Scriptures is frequently spoken of as spiritual adultery, and as jealousy is the rage of man so nothing can more fitly express the divine indignation against this sin than the term in question." According to Newman, 50 the phraseology brings to view "the great principle essential to all acceptance with Jehovah their God; namely to put away the worship of all other gods. This is constantly denoted by the phrase that 'Jehovah is a jealous God;' and out of it arose the perpetual metaphor of the prophet in which the relation of God to his people is compared to a marriage; the daughter of Israel being his bride or wife, and he a jealous husband. Thus also, every false god is a paramour, and the worship of them is adultery or fornication."

Hence, even in the estimation of this sceptical author, these expressions are not derogatory to the holiness of God.

Does not tempt them

Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.

James 1:13

God tempts men

And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham.

Genesis 22:1 And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.

2 Samuel 24:1
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Matthew 6:13

The Hebrew word "nissah," tempt, in the first text, means as Gesenius says, "to try, to prove any one, to put him to the test."

It is used in reference to David's trying Sauls armor, 51 and the queen of Sheba's testing the wisdom of Solomon. 52 The meaning therefore is, as in the old Genevan version, "God did prove Abraham."

Bush: "God may consistently, with all his perfections, by his providence, bring his creatures into circumstances of special probation, not for the purpose of giving him information, but in order to manifest to themselves and to others the prevailing dispositions of their hearts." God put Abraham to the proof before angels and men, that his faith and obedience might be made manifest for an example to all coming generations.

As to the second text, it is sufficient to say that God ordered or allowed such influences to affect the mind of David as should lead to a specific wrong act so 

……

50 History of Hebrew Monarchy, p. 26. 

51 1 Samuel 17:39. 

52 1 Kings 10:1.

……

resulting in needful chastisement. Yet the ultimate end in view was the welfare of David and his people.

It should be added that, according to Lord Arthur Hervey, 53 the passage should read, "For one moved David against them." This translation would seem to change the whole aspect of the passage, and to make the numbering of the people the cause, rather than the result, of the divine displeasure.

Keil:54 "The instigation consists in the fact that God impels sinners to manifest the wickedness of their hearts in deeds, or furnishes the opportunity and the occasion for the unfolding and practical manifestation of the evil desires e£ the heart, that the sinner may either be brought to the knowledge of his more evil ways and also to repentance, through the evil deed and its consequences; or, if the heart should be hardened still more by the evil deed, that it may become ripe for the judgment of death. The instigation of a sinner to evil is simply one peculiar way in which God, as a general rule, punishes sins through sinners; for God only instigates to evil actions such as have drawn down the wrath of God upon themselves in consequence of their sin."

"Lead us not into temptation," either "Do not suffer us to be tempted to sin; or, if "temptation" here means trial, affliction, "Do not afflict or try us." Such, in substance is Mr. Barnes's view. God "tempts," tests, or tries men, but always for wise reasons, and with a good motive; he never places inducements before men merely in order to lead them into sin. His ultimate object is always good.

(LEAD  US  NOT  INTO  TEMPTATION - TRIALS  OR  TESTING  -  TO  CORRECT  US.  IN  SIMPLE  LANGUAGE  WE  SHOULD  PRAY  THAT  GOD  WILL  NOT  HAVE  TO  PUT  US  IN  TRIALS  AND  TESTS,  BUT  THAT  WE  WILL  BE  EVER  HUMBLE  AND  QUICK  TO  SEE  AND  DO  WHAT  IS  RIGHT  BEFORE  GOD,  HENCE  THE  LORD  DOES  NOT  HAVE  TO  CORRECT  US  IN  TRIALS  BECAUSE  OUR  HEART  AND  MIND  IS  TOO  HARD.  AS  DAVID  SAID,  "CORRECT  ME  LORD  BUT  NOT  IN  YOUR  ANGER  LEST  I  BE  BROUGHT  TO  NOTHING."  A  SUPPLE  MIND  TOWARDS  GOD'S  WAYS  MEANS  LESS  REBUKE  AND  CORRECTING  FROM  GOD  -  Keith Hunt)

God, a respecter of persons

And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering. But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect.

Genesis 4:4-5

And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.

Exodus 2:25

For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.

Leviticus 26:9

And the Lord was gracious unto them, and had compassion on them, and had respect unto them.

2 Kings 13:23

Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.

Psalm 138:6

Does not respect them

A great God,  a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward.

Deuteronomy 10:17

There is no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts.

2 Chronicles 19:7

Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.

Acts 10:34

For there is no respect of persons with God.

Romans 2:11

God accepteth no man's person.

Galatians2:6

Your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.

Ephesians 6:9

The Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work.

1 Peter 1:17

……

53 In Bible Commentary.

54 Commentary on 1 Samuel 26:19.

……

The first series of texts implies a righteous and benevolent "respect," based upon a proper discrimination as to character; the second series denotes a "respect" which is partial, arising but of selfish and unworthy considerations.

The Hebrew expression, "nasa panim," in Deuteronomy 10:17 and 2 Chronicles 19:7, is to be taken, according to Gesenius, "in a bad sense, to be partial, as adjudge unjustly partial or corrupted by bribes." Fuerst gives, among other definitions, "to take the side of one with partiality.." In both of the above texts, the connection makes it clear that this is the correct interpretation. The corresponding Greek term "prosopolepsia," expressing concretely the same idea, 55 and occurring in some modification in all but one of the New Testament citations, conveys an unfavorable meaning, uniformly implying partiality.

There is therefore no collision between the two series of texts, inasmuch as they refer to widely different kinds of "respect."

Not angry

The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands.

Exodus 34:6-7

A God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness.

Nehemiah 9:17

Great are thy tender mercies, O Lord. 

Psalm 119:156

Fury is not in me.

Isaiah 27:4

God, an angry God 

Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.

Isaiah 26:20

The fierce anger of the Lord is not turned back from us.

Jeremiah 4:8

The Lord revengeth, and is furious; the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.

Nahum 1:2

The "anger" ascribed to God in the scriptures is, as Rashi says, "the displeasure and disgust" which he experiences in view of human conduct. Let any one seriously reflect as to what must be the feelings of an infinitely wise and holy Being in regard to sin, and he can scarcely be at a loss to appreciate the meaning

……

55 See Hackett on Acts 10:34.

……

of the term, "anger of God." Prof. Tayler Lewis 56 has the following remarks: "Depart in the least from the idea of indifferentism, and we have no limit but infinity. God either cares nothing about what we call good and evil; or as the heaven of heavens is high above the earth, so far do his love for the good and his hatred of evil exceed in their intensity any corresponding human affection." The Being who loves the good with infinite intensity must hate evil with the same intensity. So far from any incompatibility between this love and this hate, they are the counterparts of each other—opposite poles of the same moral emotion. "A religion over whose portal is inscribed in letters of flame, 'I am Holy' can without risk represent God as angry, jealous, mourning, repenting. Scrupulosity, under such circumstances, is the sign of an evil conscience." 57

(SIMPLY: GOD  IS  ANGRY  AT  SIN;  AND  GOD  WILL  SHOW  NO  ANGER  WHEN  PEOPLE  REPENT,  HE  WILL  SHOW  MERCY  AND  KINDNESS  -  Keith Hunt)

God, susceptible of temptation

Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.

Deuteronomy 6:16

They that tempt God are even delivered. 

Malachi 3:15

Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 

Matthew 4:7

Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples.

Acts 15:10

Cannot be tempted

God cannot be tempted with evil.

James 1:13

Men are said, in the Bible, to "tempt" God, when they distrust his faithfulness; when they brave his displeasure; when, challenging him to work miracles in their behalf, they presumptuously expose themselves to peril; also, "by-putting obstacles in the way of his evidently determined course."58

The quotation from James, as it stands in our version, simply asserts that there is nothing in God which responds to the solicitations and blandishments of evil; it presents no attractions to him. He is not allured by it in the slightest degree.

Alford, DeWette, and Huther, however, render, in substance, "God is unversed in things evil." With either rendering there is no discrepancy. 59

Justice

God is just

That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

Genesis 18:25

All his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

Deuteronomy 32:4

The LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

Psalm 92:15

Hear now, 0 house of Israel: Is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal?

Ezekiel 18:25

Unjust

For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

Matthew 13:12

(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

Romans 9:11-13

……

56 In Lange on Genesis, p. 288.

57 Hengstenberg, Genuineness of Pent. ii. 327.

58 Alford on Acts 15:10.

59 On supposed sanction of Human Sacrifices, see under Ethical Discrepancies.

……

As to Matthew 13:12, Barnes says: "This is a proverbial mode of speaking. It means that a man who improves what light, grace, and opportunities he has shall have them increased. From him that improves them not, it is proper that they should be taken away."

Alford: "He who hath—he who not only hears with the ear, but understands with the heart, has more given to him. . . . He who hath not, in whom there is no spark of spiritual desire nor meetness to receive the engrafted word, has taken from him even that which he hath ('seemeth to have,' Luke); even the poor confused notions of heavenly doctrine which a sensual and careless life allow him are further bewildered and darkened by this simple teaching, into the depths of which he cannot penetrate so far as even to ascertain that they exist."

Drydens Juvenal furnishes a fine parallel to this text:

"Tis true poor Codrus nothing had to boast; And yet poor Codrus all that nothing lost."

Stuart says that Romans 9:11-13 "refers to the bestowment and the withholding of temporal blessings."

John Taylor, of Norwich: "Election to the present privileges and external advantages of the kingdom of God in this world; and reprobation or rejection, as it signifies the not being favored with those privileges and advantages."

Barnes: "He had preferred Jacob, and had withheld from Esau those privileges and blessings which he had conferred on the posterity of Jacob."

That temporal privileges and blessings are very unequally distributed, no one can deny. The fact is patent to the most casual observer. "What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God?" If this fact constitutes an objection against the justice of this world's Governor, it is an objection which the infidel is as much bound to answer as is the Christian. The truth is, the All-wise Sovereign has an unquestionable right to bestow his favors as he sees fit.

(GOD  GIVES  SPIRITUAL  AND  PHYSICAL  BLESSINGS  AS  HE  SEES  FIT  TO  WHOM  HE  SEES  FIT,  AND  WHEN  HE  SEES  FIT;  SOMETIMES  JUST  AS  HE  WILLS;  OTHER-TIMES  DEPENDING  ON  THE  MIND-SET  OF  PEOPLE.  IN  HUMAN  TERMS  IT  MAY  BE  LOOKED  UPON  AS  LOVE  AND  HATE.  THE  HUMAN  WAY  OF  EXPRESSION  OF  GOD  WORKING  HIS  PLAN  IN  THE  PHYSICAL  AND/OR  SPIRITUAL  LIVES  OF  PEOPLE  -  ANOTHER  HUMAN  WAY  TO  PUT  IT  WOULD  BE  LOVE  AND  LESS-LOVE  -  Keith Hunt)

Punishes for others' sins. 

And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.. .. And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

Genesis 9:22,24-25

Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.

Exodus 20:5

And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor … And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger.

Joshua 7:24-26

What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?

Ezekiel 18:2

Does not thus punish

The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.

Deuteronomy 24:16

Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die … The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.

Ezekiel 18:4,20

The righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his deeds.

Romans 2:5-6

As to the case of Canaan, it cannot be proved, though often assumed, that he was cursed for the misconduct of Ham, his father. Bush thinks that Ham's gross disrespect or contemptuous deportment toward his aged parent became, "under the prompting of inspiration, a suggesting occasion of the curse now pronounced. . . . Noah therefore uttered the words from an inspired foresight of the sins and abominations of the abandoned stock of the Canaanites."

Keil: "Noah, through the spirit and power of that God with whom he walked, discerned in the moral nature of his sons, and the different tendencies which they already displayed, the germinal commencement of the future course of their posterity, and uttered words of blessing and of curse which were prophetic of the history of the tribes that descended from them." The reason why Canaan alone of Ham's sons was specified "must either lie in the fact that Canaan was already walking in the steps of his father's impiety and sin, or else be sought in the name 'Canaan,' 60 in which Noah discerned, through the gift of prophecy, a significant omen; a supposition decidedly favored by the analogy of the blessing pronounced upon Japhet, 61 which is also founded upon the name."

Lange thinks that Noah's malediction is "only to be explained on the ground that, in the prophetic spirit, he saw into the future, and that the vision had for its point of departure the then present natural state of Canaan."

Aben Ezra, 62 Rashi, the Talmudists, Scaliger, and others, with Tayler Lewis, hold that Canaan too saw Noah in his exposed condition, and that he committed a cruel and wanton outrage, or some unnamed beastly crime, upon the person of the sleeping patriarch; and that this vile indignity drew down the severe denunciation upon him as the actual offender. Prof. Lewis 63 assigns the following reasons for this opinion: The Hebrew, rendered "his younger son," cannot refer to Ham, who was older than Japheth, but means the least  youngest of the family, and hence is descriptive of Canaan. The words "had done unto him" mean something more than an omission or neglect. The expression is a very positive one. Something unmistakable, something very shameful had been done to the old man in his unconscious state, and of such a nature that it becomes manifest to him immediately on his recovery. "There seems to be a careful avoidance of particularity. The language has an euphemistic look, as though intimating something too vile and atrocious to be openly expressed. Thus regarded, everything seems to point to some wanton act done by the very one who is immediately named in the severe malediction that follows: 'Cursed be Canaan.' He was the youngest son of Ham, as he was also the youngest son of Noah, according to the well-established Shemitic peculiarity by which all the descendants are alike called sons." This explanation is equally plausible and natural.

On either of the above hypotheses, Canaan was punished not for others' misconduct, but for his own; hence the charge of "injustice" in the case is without foundation.

As to Exodus 20:5, we may say that Jehovah "visits" the iniquity of the fathers upon their children, in that he permits the latter to suffer the consequence of the sins of the former.

He has established such laws of matter and mind that the sins of parents result in the physical and mental disease and suffering of their offspring. The

……

60 That is, "the submissive one"; Keil.

61 "Widely spreading," so Gesenius.

62 See Conciliator, i. 33.

63 In Lange on Genesis, p. 338.

……

drunkard bequeaths to his children poverty, shame, wretchedness, impaired health, and not infrequently a burning thirst for strong drink. The licentious man often transmits to his helpless offspring his depraved appetites and loathsome diseases. And this transmission or "visitation" of evil takes place in accordance with the inflexible laws of the universe. Obviously "injustice" is no less chargeable upon the Author of "the laws of nature" than upon the Author of the Bible.

Even if the above text conveys the idea not only of suffering, but also of punishment, yet the language, "unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me," indicates children who are sinful like their parents. Hengstenberg: 64 "The threatening is directed against those children who tread in their fathers' footsteps." Plainly children are intended who imitate and adopt the sinful habits and practices of their parents; hence, being morally, as well as physically, the representatives and heirs of their parents, they may be, in a certain sense, punished for the sins of those parents. Bush: "The tokens of the divine displeasure were to flow along the line of those who continued the haters of God."

As to the case of Achan's sons and daughters, Canon Browne 65 says: "The sanguinary severity of Oriental nations, from which the Jewish people were by no means free, has in all ages involved the children in the punishment of the father." Many, however, think that Achan's sons and daughters were simply taken into the valley to be spectators of the punishment inflicted upon the father, that it might be a warning to them. Some explain the execution upon the ground of God's sovereignty, and his consequent right to-send death at any time and in any form he pleases.

Keil and others hold that Achan's sons and daughters were accomplices in his crime. "The things themselves had been abstracted from the booty by Achan alone; but he had hidden them in his tent, buried them in the earth, which could hardly have been done so secretly that his sons and daughters knew nothing of it. By so doing he had made his family participators in his theft; they therefore fell under the ban along with him, together with their tent, their cattle, and the rest of their property, which were all involved in the consequences of his crime."

The "proverb," Ezekiel 18:2, implied that the sufferings of the Israelites, at that time, were not at all in consequence of their own sins, but exclusively for the sins of their ancestors—a false and dangerous idea, fitly rebuked by the Almighty.

……

64 On Genesis of Pent. ii. 448.

65 In Smith's Bib. Diet., Art. "Achan."

……

Slays the righteous with the wicked. 

This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.

Job 9:22

And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth my sword out of his sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked. Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of his sheath against all flesh from the south to the north.

Ezekiel 21:3-4

Spares the righteous

Hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept my judgments, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord God … When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all my statutes, and hath done them, he shall surely live.

Ezekiel 18:9,19

But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.

Ezekiel 33:19

Now the just shall live by faith.

Hebrews 10:38

The first texts do not teach that God, regardless of character, cuts down the evil and the good together. The two classes may be alike in the external circumstances of their death; but they are totally unlike in their destiny. The righteous are, at death and by death, "taken away from the evil to come." 66 It may be the greatest possible blessing, the highest mark of the divine favor, to a good man to be summarily and forever removed from the sorrows and impending evils of earth to the ineffable bliss and repose of heaven. The second series of texts refers to spiritual, and not earthly life. Since the two series of passages contemplate things entirely different, there is no collision between them.

(IN  GOD  DEALING  WITH  A  NATION,  WITH  ISRAEL,  AND  THE  PUNISHMENT  TO  COME  ON  THEM,  THE  HUMAN,  AS  HUMANS  LOOK  AT  RIGHTEOUSNESS  AND  WICKEDNESS,  BOTH  WOULD  SUFFER  THE  SWORD.  YES  IT  IS  TRUE,  SOMETIMES  IN  PUNISHING  A  NATION  WITH  THE  SWORD,  SOME  TRUE  SAINTS  OF  GOD  ALSO  SUFFER  DEATH.  SO  IT  HAS  BEEN  DOWN  THROUGH  HISTORY.  SO  IT  WILL  BE  AT  THE  END  OF  THIS  AGE,  AND  DURING  THE  LAST  GREAT  TRIBULATION,  SOME   SAINTS  WILL  GIVE  THEIR  LIVES  FOR  THE  TRUTHS  OF  GOD  -  Keith Hunt)

Benevolence

God witholds his blessings

And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

Isaiah 1:15

Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings.

Micah 3:4

Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

James 4:3

Bestows them freely

For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Luke 11:10

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not: and it shall be given him.

James 1:5

……

66 Isaiah 57:1-2.

……

The limiting clauses of the first three texts, "hands full of blood," "ill behavior," and "asking amiss," show clearly why God withholds his blessings in these cases. Moreover, the connection in which the last two texts stand evinces that these texts were not intended to be of universal application. They contemplate those persons only who "ask in faith." 67 Everyone that asketh aright, receives. The principle upon which God, in answer to prayer, bestows his blessings is thus enunciated: "If we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us." 68 It should be added that such limiting clauses as the above are, in order to make out a contradiction, dishonestly suppressed by those writers who engage in the manufacture of "discrepancies."

Hardens men's hearts

And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them.

Exodus 9:12

And the Lord said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might show these my signs before him.

Exodus 10:1

And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh: and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land.

Exodus 11:10

But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him: for the Lord thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into thy hand, as appeareth this day.

Deuteronomy 2:30

For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour, but that he might destroy them, as the Lord commanded Moses. 

Joshua 11:20

O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?

Isaiah 63:17

He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.

John 12:40

Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

Romans 9:18

They harden their own hearts

But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them.. .. And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go.

Exodus 8:15, 32

And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.

Exodus 9:34

Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts?

1 Samuel 6:6

And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel.

2 Chronicles 36:13

Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.

Proverbs 28:14

Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness.

Hebrews 3:8

……

67 See James 1:6. 681 John 5:14.

……

We may premise that the rejection of truth and the abuse of blessings tend ever to "harden the heart." God, therefore, by making known his truth and by bestowing his blessings, indirectly "hardens" men's hearts; that is, furnishes occasion for their hardening. Thus, the divine mercy to Pharaoh in the withdrawal of the plagues at his request became the occasion of increasing his hardness. When he saw that there was respite, that the rain and hail and thunder ceased, he hardened his heart. 69 In brief, God hardened Pharaoh's heart by removing calamities, and bestowing blessings; Pharaoh hardened his own heart by perverting these blessings and abusing the grace of God.

Theodoret: 70 "The sun, by the force of its heat, moistens the wax and dries the clay, softening the one and hardening the other; and, as this produces opposite effects by the same power, so, through the long-suffering of God, which readies to all, some receive good and others evil; some are softened, and others hardened."

Stuart, 71 concerning Pharaoh: "The Lord hardened his heart, because the Lord was the author of commands and messages and miracles which were the occasion of Pharaoh's hardening his own heart."

Dr. Davidson: 72 "This does not mean that he infused positive wickedness or obstinacy into the mind, or that he influenced it in any way inconsistent with his perfections, but that he withdrew his grace, allowed the heart of Pharaoh to take its natural course, and thus to become harder and harder. He permitted it to be hardened?

Keil, on Exodus 4:21, observes: "In this twofold manner God produces hardness, not only permissive, but effective, i.e. not only by giving time and space for the manifestations of human opposition, even to the utmost limits of creaturely freedom, but still more by those continued manifestations of his will which drive the hard heart to such utter obduracy that it is no longer capable of

……

69 See Exodus 8:15 and 9:34.

70 Quaest. 12 in Exodus.

71 Com. on Romans, Excursus xi. p. 483.

72 Sacred Hermen., pp. 545-546.

……

returning, and so giving over the hardened sinner to the judgment of damnation. This is what we find in the case of Pharaoh."

As to Sihon, Deuteronomy2:30, God providentially arranged circumstances so that the malignant wickedness of his heart should develop and culminate in "hardness" and "obstinacy," bringing upon him merited destruction.

Bush, on Joshua 11:20: "God was now pleased to leave them to judicial hardness of heart, to give them up to vain confidence, pride, stubbornness, and malignity, that they might bring upon themselves his righteous vengeance, and be utterly destroyed."

As to the ancient Jews, God hardened their hearts, in that by his providence he sustained them in life, upheld the use of all their powers, caused the prophets to warn and reprove them, and placed them in circumstances where they must receive these warnings and reproofs. Under this arrangement of his providence, they became more hardened and wicked.

Delitzsch, on Isaiah 63:17, remarks: "When men have scornfully and obstinately rejected the grace of God, he withdraws it from them judicially, gives them up to their wanderings, and makes their heart incapable of faith. . . . The history of Israel, from chapter 6 onwards, has been the history of such a gradual judgment of hardening, and such a curse, eating deeper and deeper, and spreading its influence wider and wider round."

Barnes, on John 12:40: "God suffers the truth to produce a regular effect on sinful minds, without putting forth any positive supernatural influence to prevent it. The effect of truth on such minds is to irritate, to enrage, and to harden, unless counteracted by the grace of God. And, as God knew this, and knowing it still, sent the message, and suffered it to produce the regular effect, the evangelist says, 'He hath blinded their minds."'

Alford, on Romans 9:18: "Whatever difficulty there lies in this assertion that God hardeneth whom he will, lies also in the daily course of his providence, in which we see this hardening process going on in the case of the prosperous ungodly man."

(IN  ROMANS  9  AND  CONTEXT  OF  SPIRITUAL  SALVATION,  IT  IS  GOD  WHO  IS  WORKING  HIS  PLAN  OF  SALVATION  ACCORDING  TO  HIS  WILL;  HENCE  SOME,  THE  MAJORITY  ARE  LEFT  IN  BLINDNESS,  NOT  CALLED  TO  SALVATION,  WHILE  THE  RELATIVELY  FEW  ARE  CALLED  AND  CHOSEN.  GOD'S  SALVATION  HAS  A  PLAN  FOR  ALL  MANKIND.  SEE  MY  STUDY  CALLED  "THE  GREAT  WHITE  THRONE  JUDGMENT"  -  Keith Hunt)

He is warlike

The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name.

Exodus 15:3

The Lord of hosts is his name.

Isaiah 51:15

Is peaceful

Now the God of peace be with you all. Romans 15:33

For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

1 Corinthians 14:33

These two sets of texts present God in a twofold aspect—in his attitude toward sin and incorrigible sinners, on the one hand, and that toward holiness and the good, on the other. He is hostile in respect to the one, and friendly in relation to the other. All his attributes are at war with evil, but at peace with "that which is good." Every good magistrate and ruler sustains a similar twofold relation. His attitude toward law-abiding citizens is a peaceful one, while in respect to evildoers he "beareth not the sword in vain." 73

Mercy

Unmerciful and ferocious

And thou shalt consume all the people which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee: thine eye shall have no pity upon them.

Deuteronomy 7:16

And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and three score and ten men.

1 Samuel 6:19

Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not: but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.

1 Samuel 15:2-3

And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the Lord: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them.

Jeremiah 13:14

For our God is a consuming fire.

Hebrews 12:29

Merciful and kind

O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.

1 Chronicles 16:34

The Lord is good to all; and his tender mercies are over all his works.

Psalm 145:9

It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

Lamentations 3:22

The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

James 5:11

God is love.

1 John 4:16

As to the injunction to slay the Canaanites, in Deuteronomy 7, see the discussion elsewhere.74 In respect to the Bethshemites, there is, in all probability, a mistake in the number specified. "Seventy men" is the true reading, with which Josephus 75 agrees. Copyists often made these mistakes, by taking one numeral letter for another which closely resembled it. In our present Hebrew text the words stand

……

73 See Romans 13:3-4.

74 Ethical Discrepancies; "Enemies, treatment."

75 Antiq. vi. 1, 4.

……

"seventy men, fifty thousand men." But in several manuscripts the Hebrew answering to "fifty thousand men" is entirely wanting. From this circumstance, and the fact that the town of Bethshemesh could by no means furnish anything like fifty thousand men, Keil and others hold that the expression "fifty thousand men" has rightfully no place in the text, but has crept in, by some oversight, from the margin. 76 But it may be asserted that the element of number does not necessarily come into the account—that the death of one person, under those circumstances, presents as real a difficulty as would that of fifty thousand persons. It is needful to say only that these Bethshemites evinced a profane and sacrilegious curiosity, and disobeyed the most solemn, explicit, and repeated warnings of Jehovah. For example, we read, in respect to some of the Levites even, "The sons of Kohath shall come to bear it; but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die"; and "They shall not go in to see when the holy things are covered, lest they die." 77 The rabbis say that the Bethshemites actually opened and looked into the ark. It was essential to teach the people, at this time, a solemn and effective lesson with reference to the proper mode of dealing with sacred things and of approaching Jehovah.

The reason for the command in 1 Samuel 15 is as follows: When the Hebrews were toiling along on their weary pilgrimage from Egypt to Canaan, the Amalekites hung upon their rear, laid wait for them, and butchered in cold blood all who were unable to keep up with the main body. The following is the artless language of the sacred historian: "Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt; how he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared not God."78

They did this, says Keil, "not merely for the purpose of plundering, or of disputing the possession of this district and its pasture grounds with the Israelites, but to assail Israel as the nation of God, and, if possible, to destroy it." The Amalekites, as we gather from the narrative, were, in earlier and in later times a horde of ferocious and bloodthirsty guerrillas. It seemed best to the Almighty to extirpate a race so hardened and depraved, so utterly lost to the nobler feelings of mankind. Hence he said to Saul: "Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites." 79 In pursuance of this object, he was ordered to "slay both man and woman, infant and suckling."

……

76 Lord Arthur Hervey, in Bible Commentary, expresses the opinion that the error arose from the use of numeral-letters; Ayin denoting 70 being mistaken for dotted Nun  representing 50000.

77 Numbers 4:15 and 20.

78 Deuteronomy 25:17-18.
79 1 Samuel 15:18.

……

It is objected that this command proves God to be "cruel." If so, the fact that in numberless cases he slays tender babes, innocent little ones, by painful diseases, famine, pestilence, earthquakes, hurricanes, and the like, militates equally against him. The charge of "cruelty" lies just as heavily against the order of things in this world, by whatever name it may be designated, as it does against Jehovah.

Besides, had the women and children been spared, there would soon have been a fresh crop of adult Amalekites, precisely like their predecessors. Or, suppose merely the children had been saved; if left to care for themselves, they must have miserably perished of starvation; if adopted and reared in Israelite families, they might, from their hereditary dispositions and proclivities to evil, have proved a most undesirable and pernicious element in the nation. It was, doubtless, on the whole, the best thing for the world that the Amalekite race should be exterminated.

(WE  DO  NOT  ALWAYS  SEE  AS  GOD  SEES;  SOMETIMES  WE  ARE  NOT  TOLD  ALL  THE  REASONS  AS  TO  WHY  GOD  DOES  CERTAIN THINGS  THE  WAY  HE  DOES  THEM.  WE  DO  NOT  SEE  THE  DEPTH  OF  WHAT  GOD  SEES,  OR  THE  FUTURE  THAT  HE  SEES;  HENCE   HIS  DECISION  TO  DO   WHAT  HE  DECIDES  TO  DO  -  Keiht Hunt)

The people so severely threatened in Jeremiah 13:14 were abominably corrupt and depraved. In Jeremiah 7:9, they are charged with theft, murder, adultery, perjury, burning incense to Baal, and with idolatry in general. Yet, as the connection 80 clearly shows, the severe threatening above mentioned was a conditional one. They might have repented, and escaped. They would not reform, hence the threatening was strictly carried out.

As to Hebrews 12:29, God is a "consuming fire" in respect to evil and evildoers. According to Afford, the fact that "God's anger continues to burn now, as then, against those who reject his kingdom, is brought in; and in the background lie all those gracious dealings by which the fire of God's presence and purity becomes to his people, while it consumes their vanity and sin and earthly state, the fire of purity and light and love for their enduring citizenship of his kingdom."

His anger fierce and lasting

The fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel.

Numbers 25:4

And the Lord's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation, that had done evil in the sight of the Lord, was consumed. Numbers 32:13

Wilt thou be angry with, us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?

Psalm 85:5

Slow and brief

For his anger endureth but a moment. 

Psalm 30:5

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.

Psalm 103:8-9

……

See Jeremiah 13:15-17.

……

The "fierce anger" of the Lord is his intense and infinite displeasure at everything unholy and evil. He is "slow to anger"; for though he feels an infinite abhorrence of sin, yet he bears-long with the sinner, before giving punitive expression to that abhorrence. He dealt very patiently with the Israelites, as their history abundantly shows.

As to Psalm 30:5, Delitzsch observes: "'A moment passes in his anger, a (whole) life in his favor, that is, the former endures only for a moment, the latter, the whole life of a man."

The anger of God ceases upon the repentance of the sinner. In relation to a certain class of persons, that anger is fierce and lasting, but with respect to a different class, it is slow and brief.

Fearful to fall into his hands

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Hebrews 10:31

Not fearful

And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the Lord: for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man.

2 Samuel 24:14

The first text refers to the case of apostates and other incorrigible sinners; the second to the case of those who are truly penitent. Alford: "The two sentiments are easily set at one. For the faithful, in their chastisement, it is a blessed thing to fall into God's hands; for the unfaithful, in their doom, a dreadful one."

Laughs at sinner's overthrow

I also will laugh at your calamity: I will mock when your fear cometh.

Proverbs 1:26

Has no pleasure in it 

For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye. 

Ezekiel 18:32

The persons addressed in the first text are obdurate despisers and scorners who have persistently rejected God's admonitions. So, when calamities overtake them, he contemptuously rejects their prayers, which have no trace of penitence in them, but are the offspring of base fear. On this passage Stuart comments as follows: "I shall henceforth treat you as enemies who deserve contempt. . . . The intensity of the tropical language here makes the expression exceedingly strong. Laughing at and mocking are expressions of the highest and most contemptuous indignation."

The second text refers to persons who, though sinful, were less hardened and in a more hopeful condition than the former class.

A God of Justice

He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

Deuteronomy 32:4

Of Mercy

The Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if ye return unto him.

2 Chronicles 30:9

God's justice is not restricted to what is termed "distributive justice," which gives to every man his exact desserts, leaving no room for the exercise of mercy. The divine justice is that "general justice" which carries out completely all the ends of law, sometimes by remitting, and at other times by inflicting, the penalty, according as the offender is penitent or otherwise. Every wise parent and ruler employs general justice, securing the great ends of government by punishing offenders, or by showing mercy, as circumstances may warrant. The following is a striking passage: "Unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy; for thou renderest to every man according to his work." 81 From this text it would seem that, in the Psalmist's view, mercy and justice are so far from being incompatible, that the one attribute is dependent upon the other. "Thou art merciful, for thou art just." Hengstenberg: "He must have lovingkindness, inasmuch as it is involved in the very idea of God as the righteous One, that he recompense every one according to his work, and therefore manifest himself as compassionate to the righteous, while he destroys the wicked."

He hates same.

Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau.

Malachi 1:2-3

Is kind to all

The Lord is good to all.

Psalm 145:9

The word "hate" is used here, as often in scripture, 82 in the sense of to love less. If one person was preferred to another, the former was said to be "loved," the latter "hated." Henderson observes: "As the opposite of love is hatred, when there is only an inferior degree of the former exhibited, the object of it is regarded as being hated, rather than loved."

……

81 Psalm 62:12.

82 See Genesis 29:30-31; Proverbs 13:24; also Luke 14:26, compared with Matthew 10:37.

……

Veracity

God cannot lie

The Strength of Israel will not lie.

1 Samuel 15:29

That by two immutable things,  in which it was impossible for God to lie.

Hebrews 6:18

Sends forth lying spirits

And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of the Lord; I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shall persuade him, and prevail also; go forth, and do so. Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee.

1 Kings 22:19-23

The whole declaration of Micaiah, in the passage, is a highly figurative and poetical description of a vision he had seen. Putting aside its rhetorical drapery, the gist of the whole passage is that God for judicial purposes suffered Ahab to be fatally deceived. Bahr: "Because Ahab, who had abandoned God and hardened his heart, desired to use prophecy for his own purposes, it is determined that he shall be led to ruin by prophecy. As God often used the heathen nations as the rod of his wrath for the chastisement of Israel (Isaiah 10:5), so now he uses Ahab's false prophets to bring upon Ahab the judgment which Elijah had foretold against him."

A. Fuller:83 "That spirit to whom thou hast sold thyself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord now desires thee as his prey. He that has seduced thee into sin now asks permission of God to deceive thy prophets, that he may plunge thee into destruction; and God has granted him his desire. And that which Satan is doing for his own ends, God will do for his. There is as much of the judicial hand of God in a lying spirit having misled thy prophets as of readiness in the evil one to entangle and seize thee as his prey."

(AGAIN,  GOD  ALLOWING  EVIL  AND  DECEPTION,  TO  GO  FORTH,  BECAUSE  HUMANS  ARE  ON  A  MIND-SET  TO  DO  EVIL  AND  SIN,  SO  PUNISHMENT  WILL  COME  TO  ALL  WORK,  IN  THE  LONG-RUN  FOR  GOD'S  WILL,  JUSTICE,  AND  WORK,  IN  THE  WORKING  WITH  HIS  PEOPLE  THROUGH  THEIR  HISTORY,  SO  ALSO  BRINGING  TO  PASS  THE  OFTEN  PROPHETIC  MESSAGE  GOD  SENT  OUT  TO  HIS  PEOPLE,  IN  WARNING  ADMONITIONS  -  Keith Hunt)

……

83 Works, Vol. i. p. 620.

……

Keil: "Jehovah sends this spirit, inasmuch as the deception of Ahab has been inflicted upon him as a judgment of God for his unbelief. But there is no statement here to the effect that this lying spirit proceeded from Satan, because the object of the prophet was simply to bring out the working of God in the deception practised upon Ahab by his prophets. . . . Jehovah has ordained that Ahab, being led astray by a prediction of his prophets inspired by the spirit of lies, shall enter upon the war, that he may find therein the punishment of his ungodliness."

Denounces deception 

Cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing. 

Malachi 1:14

Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?

Acts 5:3

Sanctions it

And Samuel said, How can I go? if Saul hear it, he will kill me. And the Lord said, Take an heifer with thee, and say, I am come to sacrifice to the Lord.

1 Samuel 16:2

O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed.

Jeremiah 20:7

And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.

Ezekiel 14:9

Even him, whose coming is after-the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a He: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness..

2 Thessalonians 2:9-12

On the text from 1 Samuel, Calvin says: "There was no dissimulation or falsehood in this, since God really wished his prophet to find safety under the pretext of the sacrifice. A sacrifice was therefore really offered, and the prophet was protected thereby, so that he was not exposed to any danger until the time of full revelation arrived."

Keil: "There was no untruth in this; for Samuel was really about to conduct a sacrificial festival, and was to invite Jesse's family to it, and then anoint the one whom Jehovah should point out to him as the chosen one. It was simply a concealment of the principal object of his mission from any who might make inquiry about it because they themselves had not been invited."

It is our privilege to withhold the truth from persons who have no right to know it, and who, as we have reason to believe, would make a bad use of it. Lord Arthur Hervey 84 well observes: "Secrecy and concealment are not the same as duplicity and falsehood. Concealment of a good purpose, for a good purpose, is clearly justifiable; for example, in war, in medical treatment, in state policy, and in the ordinary affairs of life. In the providential government of the world, and in God's dealings with individuals, concealment of his purpose, till the proper time for its development, is the rule, rather than the exception, and must be so."

Jeremiah 20:7 is rendered by Davidson 85 thus: "O Lord, thou hast constrained me, and I was constrained."

Henderson: "'Thou didst persuade me, O Jehovah, and I was persuaded.' The prophet alludes to his reluctance to accept the prophetical office, which it required powerful inducements from Jehovah to overcome." Naegelsbach, in Lange, gives a similar version.

Ezekiel 14:9, which refers to idolatrous prophets, exhibits the fact that when men, without divine authority, set up as prophets, God, in order to expose the falsity of their pretensions, "deceives" them; that is, he so orders circumstances that these prophets will utter false and foolish predictions, which by their failure shall disclose the true character of their authors, and overwhelm them with shame and disgrace.

(GOD  KNOWS  THE  HUMAN  HEART;  PEOPLE  WANT  TO  HEAR  WHAT  THEY  WANT  TO  HEAR;  THEIR  HEART  TOWARDS  GOD  IS  NOT  TRUE;  SO  FALSE  DECEIVERS  ARE  ALLOWED  BY  GOD  TO  COME,  AND  DECEIVE;  HE  GIVES  THE  PEOPLE  WHAT  THEY  WANT.  BUT  INDEED  THE  PEOPLE  WILL  BE  HELD  ACCOUNTABLE  FOR  THE  DECEPTIONS  THEY  DESIRE  AS  WELL  AS  THE  FALSE  PROPHET.  IT  IS  WE  REAP  WHAT  WE  SOW.  ALL  WILLFUL  DECEIVERS  HAVE  THEIR  OWN  PART  IN  TEACHING  DECEPTIONS,  ALONG  WITH  THE  DEMONIC  FORCES  WHO  ARE  EVER  IN  THE  GAME  OF  DECEPTION  -  Keith Hunt) 

As to the last text of the second series above, observe the description of the persons contemplated by it. The "deceivableness of unrighteousness" is in them; they neither love nor believe the truth, but have "pleasure in unrighteousness." They deliberately choose error. As they prefer falsehood and delusion to truth, God gives them their choice in full measure. With a judicial purpose, he gives them what they love, together with all its fearful consequences. 86

Alford: "He is the judicial sender and doer; it is he who hardens the heart which has chosen the evil way."

Ellicott: "The words are definite and significant; they point to that 'judicial infatuation' into which, in the development of his just government of the world, God causes evil and error to be unfolded, and which he brings into punitive agency in the case of all obstinate and truth-hating rejection of his offers and calls of mercy."

……

84 In Bible Commentary.

85 Introd. to Old Testament, Vol. ii. p. 435.

86 See South's Sermon on Falsehood and Lying, Works, i. pp. 192-203. Also, Miiller, Doctrine of Sin, ii. pp. 413-415 (second edition).

……

Habitation of God

Dwells in light

Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto.

1 Timothy 6:16

Dwells in darkness

Then spake Solomon, The Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.

1 Kings 8:12

He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.

Psalm 18:11

Clouds and darkness are round about him.

Psalm 97:2

The meaning may be that that in which God dwells is "light" to him, but "darkness" to us. The morning sun, which is light to the eagle, is darkness and blindness to nocturnal animals.

A better explanation, perhaps, is the following: Imagery of various and widely diverse kinds is employed in the scriptures to set forth the attributes of God and his immeasurable remove from finite conditions and creatures. Where two or more figures are employed to illustrate the same idea, we should look for the common features of resemblance or common point of comparison. In the case before us, both of the figurative expressions—"unapproachable light" and "thick darkness"-—set forth vividly and equally well the unsearchableness of God in relation to his creatures. This is the point which, in the present instance, the sacred writers intended to illustrate and beyond this their language should not be pressed.

(GOD'S  ESSENCE  IS  LIGHT;  PURITY;  BUT  TOWARDS  MAN  HE  ALSO  DWELLS  IN  ANYTHING  BE  IT  THE  SUNLIGHT,  OR  CLOUDS  OF  DARKNESS;  BE  IT  THE  RAIN  OR  THE  STORM;  BE  IT  THE  SKY  OR  THE  DEPTHS  OF  THE  SEA.  FOR  MAN  GOD  CAN  DWELL  ANYWHERE.  BUT  WHERE  HE  LIVES,  IN  HIS  HEAVENLY  THRONE,  THERE  IS  ONLY  PURE  GLORIOUS  LIGHT  -  Keith HNunt)

Dwells in chosen Temples

And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice ... For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.

2 Chronicles 7:12,16

Does not dwell there

Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? 

Isaiah 66:1

Howbeit, the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands.

Acts 7:48

Observe, first, that God does not promise to "dwell" in the temple. He says he had chosen it, not as a residence, but as a "house of sacrifice." So Solomon understood it, for he says: "But who is able to build him an house, seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain him? who am I then, that I should build him an house, save only to burn sacrifice before him?" 87 The promise that

……

87 2 Chronicles 2:6.

……

the name, heart, and eyes of Jehovah should be there, meant simply that he would regard the house with peculiar favor, and manifest his power and grace in it. It is to be noted, secondly, that the whole promise was conditional, as is explicitly stated in the following verses: "But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them; then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations." 88 As the conditions were not complied with, the promise was of course not binding. The quotation from Acts merely affirms that the infinite, omnipresent Spirit is not restricted to any one locality, or confined to any single place of worship.

Inhabits eternity

For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy.

Isaiah 57:15

Dwells with men

And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God.

Exodus 29:45

I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

Isaiah 57:15

Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

John 14:23

God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

2 Corinthians 6:16

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

Revelation 21:3

An omnipresent Being may do both-—-dwell in eternity, and with men too. The "omnipresence" of God is his power to develop his activity everywhere at once. Hence, in this view, the passages present no difficulty.

……

2 Chronicles 7:19-20. Kimchi and Rashi give this explanation of the case.

……

Dwells in heaven.

Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.

Psalm 123:1 

Dwells in Zion

Sing praises to the Lord, which dwelleth in Zion.

Psalm 9:11

In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwellingplace in Zion.

Psalm 76:2

To a mind capable of comprehending the meaning of the term "omnipresence" these texts are seen to be in perfect harmony. Most simply, yet sublimely, is the idea expressed by the inspired prophet: "Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord." 89

Position God assumes

One Position

There will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.

Joel 3:12

A different one

The Lord standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people.

Isaiah 3:13

This is a fair specimen of the trivial, verbal discrepancies which certain infidel writers palm off upon their careless or ignorant readers as cases of real contradiction. Of course, no person of candor and common sense would think of interpreting the language literally. The figure "sit" brings graphically to view the deliberateness and impartiality with which God judges men; the term "standeth" represents him as in the act of executing his judgments.

(FIGURES  OF  SPEECH  AS  GOD  EXECUTES  HIS  JUDGMENTS  UPON  ALL  PEOPLES;  HE  CAN  DO  IT  IN  ANY  POSITION  AS  FAR  AS  THE  WAY  HUMANS  COULD  LOOK  UPON  IT.  COULD  HE  SIT  AND  PLEAD  AS  WELL  AS  STAND  AND  PLEAD?  OF  COURSE!  IT  IS  THE  POETIC  WAY  TO  TEACH  THAT  GOD  CAN  DO  ANYTHING  IN  ANY  POSITION  WE  HUMANS  MAY  WANT  TO  THINK  -  Keith Hunt)

Law of God

A law of liberty

So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.

James 2:12

Tends to bondage

These are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage.

Galatians 4:24

The "law" of the first, is not identical with the "covenant" of the second passage. The former refers to the norm or rule of life contained in the gospel. It is Christ's law of love, purity, and liberty as embodied in the Sermon on the Mount.

……

Jeremiah 23:24.

……

Alford: "It is the law of our liberty, not as in contrast with a former law of bondage, but as viewed on the side of its being the law of the new life and birth, with all its spontaneous and free development of obedience."

On the contrary, the "covenant" is the Mosaic law, with its complicated and burdensome ritual. This gendered to bondage. Ellicott comments thus: "'Bearing children unto bondage' i.e. to pass under and to inherit the lot of bondage." Peter terms it a "yoke," which "neither our fathers nor we were able to bear." 90 As, therefore, the two texts refer to entirely different things, there is no collision.

(ONE  IS  THE  LAW  OF  LIBERTY;  THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS; OUT  FROM  ITS  CONDEMNATION,  WE  CAN  OBEY  IT  UNDER  GRACE.  THE  COVENANT  FROM  SINAI  -  TRYING  TO  GAIN  SALVATION  BY  OBEYING  THE  OLD  COVENANT  IS  IMPOSSIBLE,  DOING  SUCH  AS  NOT  POSSIBLE,  AS  IT  WAS  NEVER  INTENDED  FOR  SALVATION,  WOULD  ONLY  LEAD  TO  BONDAGE  OF  NEVER  BEING  SAVED  BY  GRACE  THROUGH  FAITH  IN  CHRIST  JESUS  -  Keith Hunt)

Law is perfect

But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty.

James 1:25

It perfected nothing

For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did.

Hebrews 7:19

As in the preceding instance, these texts refer to different things—the former to the Christian, the latter to the Mosaic, law. Besides, were the same law intended in both cases, it would by no means follow that a perfect law necessarily secures perfect obedience.

Observance tends to life 

Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord.

Leviticus 18:5

For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth these things shall live by them.

Romans 10:5

Tends to death

Because they had not executed my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers' idols. Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live; and I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the Lord. 

Ezekiel 20:24-26

And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.

Romans 7:10

If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.

Galatians 3:21

……

90 Acts 15:10.

……

The first two texts affirm the general principle that obedience secures felicity, but do not say that any human being renders this obedience, in the full and perfect sense. The words, "if a man do," are merely hypothetical.

Ezekiel's words, taken in their connection, are explained by Kimchi 91 in the following manner: As the Israelites did not choose to observe the comparatively mild statutes of God whereby they might have lived happily, he substituted other statutes, so different from the first as to render it impossible to live under them, by subjecting that disobedient people to those enemies who instituted violent and rigorous laws against them. That is, the "statutes not good" were not the Mosaic statutes, but those of heathen tyrants and oppressors, to whom, from time to time, God delivered the Jews in punishment of their sins. 92

The commandment which was fitted and intended to secure life, Saul, through transgression, found to result in death. Our criminal law, which makes hanging the penalty of the crime of murder, is designed for the preservation of life. But the murderer who is tried, convicted, and executed under that law finds it a law "unto death."

The quotation from Galatians maybe paraphrased thus: "If there had been a law given which could"—under the circumstances, "which could"—-amid the limitations, frailties, and imperfect obedience of humanity, "have given life." The law requires perfect obedience, in order to life. But it is absolutely certain that man does not, and will not, render this obedience; hence the law cannot give life to him. No law, as such, can give life to sinners. In brief, we may say that the first series of texts implies that the design and normal tendency of the law is life; the last, that, through mans imperfection and disobedience, the actual result is death. Hence, there is clearly no discrepancy.

………………..

TO  BE  CONTINUED

Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible  #3

2. CHRIST—His Divinity

Christ is God

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

John 1:1,14

But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.

Hebrews 1:8

He is man

But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God.

John 8:40

Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained.

Acts 17:31

One mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

1 Timothy 2:5

Christ is here presented in two aspects—in his divine nature, by virtue of which he was God, and in his human nature, in respect of which he was man. On the one hand, he was "God, in substance and essence" 93, on the other, he was man, as having taken upon him human nature.

One with the Father

I and my Father are one.

John 10:30

Distinct from him

I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.

John 16:28

The "oneness" of the first text is unity of essence, attributes, and will, but not unity of person. This is made clear in our Savior's prayer for his disciples: "That they may be one, even as we are one." 94 Here the petition is, not that the disciples might lose then individual existence and be merged in one corporeal organism, but that, in their great work, they might be "of one heart and of one soul." Again, we read: "I have planted, Apolios watered;. . . Now, he that planteth and he that watereth are one." 95 Not identity of person, but of purpose, is here intended. The underlying principle which harmonizes the two foregoing texts is therefore the following: Unity of essence and attributes, with distinctions of person.

Alford: "Christ and the Father are one-—-one in essence, primarily, but therefore also one in working and power and in will;. . . not personally one, but essentially."

(AS  IN  THE  BEGINNING  FOR  MARRIAGE…. TWO  SHALL  BECOME  ONE;  AND  THE  CHURCH  IS  ONE  BODY,  MANY  MEMBERS  BUT  ONE  IN  WORKING,  POWER,  WILL,  ESSENCE  -  Keith Hunt)

Equal to the Father

Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.

Philippians 2:5-6

After Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

Colossians 2:8-9

Inferior to him

If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.

John 14:28

……

93 So Alford, on John 1:1.

94 John 17:22.

95 1 Corinthians 3:6, 8.

……

The words "greater than I" do not assert Christ's inferiority in respect to essence. Barnes: "The object of Jesus here is not to compare his own nature with that of the Father, but his condition. Ye would rejoice that I am to leave this state of suffering and humiliation, and resume that glory which I had with the Father before the world was. You ought to rejoice at my exaltation to bliss and glory with the Father."

Calvin: "Christ does not here compare the divinity of the Father with his own, neither his own human nature with the divine essence of the Father, but rather his present state with that celestial glory to which he must shortly be received."

In this interpretation concur Luther, Cocceius, De Wette, Tholuck, Stuart, and Alford, with other critics and commentators. 96 This exposition is in perfect keeping with the context.

(BUT  THEY  ALL  MISS  THE  REAL  TRUTH  HERE  PRESENTED  BY  CHRIST.  THEY  MISS  IT  BECAUSE  OF  THE  "TRINITY"  DOCTRINE  THEY  ARE  BLINDED  WITH.  THERE  ARE  MAINLY  THREE  TRINITY  TEACHINGS:  1.  GOD  IS  A  NOTHING,  CANNOT  THINK  OF  HIM  IN  ANY  REAL  PERSONAL  WAY [I  DO  NOT  WORSHIP  A  NOTHINGNESS  GOD - IT'S  A  CRAZY  THEOLOGY] 2. GOD  IS  ONE  BEING  ABLE  TO  MANIFEST  HIMSELF  AS  ONE,  TWO,  OR  THREE  PERSONS,  THEN  GO  BACK  TO  BEING  ONE  SINGLE  BLOB  OF  WHATEVER. 3.  THE  GODHEAD  IS  MADE  UP  OF  THREE  INDIVIDUAL  BEINGS,  SEPARATE  AND  DISTINCT  FROM  EACH  OTHER - ALL  BEING  GOD.  NONE  OF  THESE  TEACHINGS  ARE  CORRECT.  THE  SIMPLE  TRUTH  IS  FOUND  NOT  ONLY  IN  THE  WORDS  OF  CHRIST  ABOVE,  BUT  ALSO  BY  PAUL  IN  1  COR. 11:1-3 "….THE  HEAD  OF  CHRIST  IS  GOD [THE  FATHER].  ALSO  THE  NT  AND  ESPECIALLY  THE  BOOK  OF  REVELATION  MAKES  IT  VERY  CLEAR  CHRIST  WENT  BACK  TO  HEAVEN  TO  SIT  ON  THE  RIGHT  HAND  OF  GOD  THE  FATHER;  NOT  INSIDE  HIM,  NOT  ON  TOP  OF  HIM,  BUT  ON  HIS  RIGHT  HAND.  CHRIST  IS  GOD;  GOD  THE  FATHER  IS  GOD;  THEY  HAVE  EQUAL  EVERYTHING  IN  ESSENCE  AND  POWER,  WISDOM  AND  JUDGMENT,  AND  ALL  ATTRIBUTES;  BUT  GOD  THE  FATHER  IS  GREATER  IN  AUTHORITY;  HE  IS  THE  SUPREME  AUTHORITY  IN  THE  UNIVERSE;  THE  HEAD  OF  CHRIST,  GREAT  IN  AUTHORITY  THAN  CHRIST;  HE  SITS  ON  THE  HEAVENLY  THRONE,  AND  JESUS  ON  HIS  RIGHT  HAND  -  Keith Hunt)

The Son is God

The church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

Acts 20:28

Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ.

1 Peter 1:18-19

The Father the only God

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God.   

John 17:3

In respect to the quotation from Acts, there are different readings. Some critics read "theos," God; others, "kurios," Lord. Alford, Wordsworth, Mill, and others adopt the former; Griesbach, Lachmann, Meyer, Davidson, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Green, and Hackett apparently, adopt the latter reading. If we read "the church of the Lord," the passage will have no direct bearing upon the point under discussion. On the words, "the only true God," Barnes observes: "The only God in opposition to all false gods. What is said here is in opposition to idols, not to Jesus himself, who, in 1 John 5:20, is called 'the true God and eternal life.'"'

Alford: "The very juxtaposition of Jesus Christ here with the Father, and the knowledge of both being defined to be eternal life, is a proof by implication of the Godhead of the former. The knowledge of God and a creature could not be eternal life, and the juxtaposition of the two would be inconceivable."

……

(AGAIN  THESE  SCHOLARS  MISS  THE  IMPORTANT  POINT  SHOWN  IN  THE  NT:  THE  WORD  "GOD"  IS  USED  IN  DIFFERENT  WAYS  IN  DIFFERENT  CONTEXTS.  "GOD"  IS  OFTEN  APPLIED  TO  "THE  FATHER"  AND  HENCE  TO  THE  SUPREME  ONE  OF  THE  GODHEAD.  HE  IS  THE  ONLY  SUPREME  GOD,  HEAD,  AND  ALWAYS  WILL  BE.  AND  JESUS  COULD  HAVE  BEEN  SPEAKING  AS  MANKIND  THINKS [WITH  HAVING  MANY  SO-CALLED  GODS].  JESUS  THEN  ANSWERS  THEM  ALL  BY  SAYING,  "NO  THERE  IS  ONLY  ONE  TRUE  GOD";  ONE  SUPREME  GOD  IN  THE  UNIVERSE  -  Keith Hunt)

Christ, the Son of God

Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified,  and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?

John 10:36

And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Acts S.-.ZT7

Son of man

When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?

Matthew 16:13

For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

Luke 19:10

The term "Son of God," is to be regarded as descriptive of Jesus, in his divine nature; "Son of man," in his human nature. The latter term, says Alford, is "the name by which the Lord ordinarily in one pregnant word, designates himself as the Messiah-—-the Son of God manifested in the flesh of man—-the second Adam. And to it belong all those conditions of humiliation, suffering, and exaltation, which it behooves the Son of man to go through." From the following passage, "Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God. Then said they all, Art thou then the Son of God?" 98 it would appear that the Jews took the two expressions, "Son of God" and "Son of man," as nearly or quite synonymous, both denoting the long-expected Messiah.

(IN  THE  BOOK  OF  DANIEL,  HE  SEES  IN  VISION  ONE  LIKE  THE  SON  OF  MAN  COMING  TO  THE  ANCIENT  OF  DAYS.  SO  FROM  THIS  BIBLE  INTERPRETING  THE  BIBLE,  "SON  OF  MAN"  IS  ALSO  DEITY.  BUT  ALSO  "SON  OF  MAN"  CAN  DENOTE  HIS  HUMAN  NATURE;  JESUS  WAS  BOTH  HUMAN  AND  DIVINE  -  Keith Hunt)

The only Son of God

The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

John 1:18

In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

1 John 4:9

Men also sons of God

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

Romans 8:14

Beloved, now are we the sons of God. 1 John 3:2

Observe that the first two texts do not assert that Jesus is the "only," but the "only begotten," Son of God; that is, he is the only being who sustains that peculiar relation to the Father, which is implied in the term "begotten."

(CONCEIVED  LIKE  NO  OTHER  HUMAN  EVER  -  Keith Hunt)

One class of theologians hold that, while men may become sons of God by adoption," Jesus is son by generation, and consequent participation in the divine essence and attributes. Such was the view of the Nicene trinitarians.100 By analogical 

……

97 This verse is retained by Bornemann, Wordsworth, and the Arabic, Armenian, Syriac, and Vulgate versions. It is omitted by Alford, Hackett, Meyer, Tischendorf, and most other modern critics.

98 Luke 22:69-70.

99 Romans 8:15-16.

100 Shedd, History of Christian Doctrine, i. 331.

……

reasoning, they maintained that, as the human son participates in the nature and attributes of the human father, the same holds true of the Divine Son in relation to the Divine Father. According to this view, held by many theologians at the present day, Christ is distinctively "the Son of God"—or, in the language of Dr. Hodge,101 "the only person in the universe to whom the word can be applied in its full sense, as expressing sameness of essence."

There is another explanation of the term, "Son of God," which is given by Dr. Watts,102 Prof. Stuart,103 Prof. Park, and others. They hold that Christ bears this appellation because, in respect to his human nature, he is derived from God; also because of the elevated dignity which was conferred on him as the Messiah—his resurrection from the dead being the commencement of his elevation to supreme dignity, and being, moreover, the beginning of a new life; that is, something analogous to birth or generation. The last-named theologian104 adduces the additional reason that Christ was greatly beloved of the Father.

On either of the above hypotheses, the fact that men are occasionally styled "sons of God," while Jesus is denominated "the only-begotten Son of God," occasions no difficulty, since the two appellations are respectively used with very different significations.

(INDEED  JESUS  WAS  A  BEGOTTEN  SON  OF  GOD  IN  A  MIRACULOUS  WAY,  THAT  NO  OTHER  HUMAN  CAN  EVER  CLAIM;  HE  WAS  CONCEIVED  IN  THE  WOMB  OF  MARY  BY  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT,  A  MIRACULOUS  CONCEPTION,  NON  OTHER  WILL  EVER  BE  ABLE  TO  CLAIM  -  HUMANS  BECOME  SONS  OF  GOD  THROUGH  REPENTANCE  AND  RECEIVING  THE  SPIRIT  OF  GOD;  JESUS  BEING  SINLESS  NEEDED  NO  REPENTANCE;  HE  WAS  BEGOTTEN  AND  WAS  A  SON  OF  GOD  FROM  CONCEPTION  THROUGH  A  MIRACLE.  A  SON  OF  GOD  IN  A  WAY  NO  OTHER  HUMAN  WILL  EVER  BE  -  Keith Hunt)

Omnipotence

Had all power

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Matthew 28:18

The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.

John 3:35

Was not almighty

To sit on my right hand, and on my left is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.

Matthew 20:23

And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hand upon a few sick folk, and healed them.

Mark 6:5

Matthew 20:23 is rendered by Grotius, Chrysostom, Clarke, Barnes, and others thus: "is not mine to give, except to those for whom," etc. With this the Syriac Peshito precisely agrees. The italics in the common version of this text pervert the meaning. The real sense is: "It is not fitting that I should bestow it upon others." The question is not one of power at all, but of fitness.

Mark 6:5 implies not physical but moral impossibility. It was not lack of power which prevented his working miracles at Nazareth; but, as the next verse

……

101 Theology, i. 474. Compare Dr. Miller's Letters on Eternal Sonship, pp. 37-40.

102 See Works, v. 232-258 (edition in 7 vols.).

103 Letters to Dr. Miller on Eternal Generation, Letter viii.

104 MS. Lectures.

……

shows, the "unbelief of the people was the reason why it was inconsistent for him, or why he "could not" thus work. So one often says of a thing which he deemed improper, or incompatible with his purposes, "I could not do it."

Alford: "The want of ability is not absolute, but relative. The same voice which could still the tempest, could anywhere and under any circumstances have commanded diseases to obey; but in most cases of human infirmity, it was our Lord's practice to require faith in the recipient of aid, and that being wanting, the help could not be given."

(ON  MAT.  23:23  THEY  HAVE  IT  WRONG.  THE  "TRINITY"  DOCTRINE  BLINDING  THEIR  MINDS.  JESUS  SAID  WHAT  HE  MEANT  AND  MEANT  WHAT  HE  SAID.  AS  GOD  THE  FATHER  IS  HEAD  OF  CHRIST,  IS  THE  SUPREME  RULER  IN  AUTHORITY;  IT  IS  THE  FATHER  ONLY  THAT  CAN  DECIDE  WHO  SITS  ON  JESUS  RIGHT  AND  LEFT  HAND  IN  THE  AGE  TO  COME…THE  1,000   YEAR  RULE  OF  CHRIST  ON  EARTH - Keith Hunt)

Omniscience

Knew all things

But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.

John 2:24-25

Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee.

John 16:30

And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee.

John 21:17

Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Colossians 2:2-3

Ignorant of some things

And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.

Mark 11:13

But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.

Mark 13:32

And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see.

John 11:34

Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren. Hebrews 2:17

Obviously, some passages represent Christ in the aspect of his Godhead, while others speak of him simply in his human nature—as a man. When he is spoken of as "increasing in wisdom and stature,"105 the humanity is placed in the foreground; when he claims to have existed "before Abraham was,"106 he speaks in his inherent divinity. As another has remarked: "His infancy and childhood were no mere pretence, but the divine personality was in him carried through these states of weakness and inexperience, and gathered round itself the ordinary accessions and experiences of the sons of men." In the person of Christ, the Divinity voluntarily entered into, and took upon itself, the conditions and limitations of humanity.

……

105 Luke 2:52.

106 John 8:58.

……

Ewald 107 observes: "Even the highest divine power, when it veils itself in mortal body, and appears in definite time, finds, in this body and this time, its limits." To nearly the same purport, Colenso108 says: "It is perfectly consistent with the most entire and sincere belief in our Lord's divinity, to hold, as many do, that when he vouchsafed to become a 'Son of man,' he took our nature fully, and voluntarily entered into all the conditions of humanity, and among others, into that which makes our growth in all ordinary knowledge gradual and limited."

The divinity and humanity were, as we believe, so united that they exerted a reciprocal influence, each modifying the action of the other. If it be said that such a union is improbable, we reply that there is an equal, antecedent improbability that a spirit, being immaterial, would be united with a body composed of matter, so as to form one personality, one ego; yet we know that this actually occurs in the case of man. In consequence of the union above mentioned, our Savior could say "I" of either component of his nature-—-the divine or the human. Sometimes he spoke in one relation, sometimes in the other, according as circumstances or the exigencies of discourse required."109 In a somewhat analogous way, a man says, "I rejoice at it," and, at another time, "weigh so much." In the first instance, the "I" refers exclusively to the soul; in the second, to the body. The soul rejoices, the body weighs. Yet the pronoun "I" is applied indifferently to either. We cannot but think that the principle underlying this mode of conception and speech, indicates a simple and correct interpretation of the second series of texts quoted above. They bring Christ before our minds in his lower and subordinate relations, in the humiliation, the "emptying" himself of his Godlike majesty and visible glories, which he voluntarily undertook and endured.110

As to the case of the fig tree, Jesus wished to teach his disciples an important lesson. This was enforced upon their minds by his suddenly blighting the tree. The foliage of the tree was in such a state that it was antecedently probable that there was fruit also. Jesus acted "according to the appearance of things; being a man as well as divine he acted, of course, as men do act in such circumstances."

……

107 LifeofChrist,p.340.

108 Qn Pentateuch, Part i. p. xxxi.

109  Dr. Payson, on his deathbed, said, in substance, to his friends, "I suffer as much pain, as if every bone were undergoing dislocation;" and, in the same breath, "I am perfectly, perfectly happy and peaceful—more happy than I can possibly express to you." That is, he was at the same moment intensely happy, and suffering intensely. Yet this involved no contradiction. The language had respect to different relations, or to different departments of being. See Payson's
Memoir, by Cummings, p. 476.

……

110 See Philippians 2:7-8; Greek sauxov eKsvcooe, emptied himself.

……

As to Mark 13:32, Augustine says, "He did not know so that he might at that time disclose to the disciples." He adds elsewhere, "Though as God he could not be ignorant of any thing, yet his human understanding did not know it."

Lightfoot, on the passage: "It is not revealed to him from the Father to reveal to the church."

Wordsworth, on the same text: "It is true that the Son, as Son, knoweth not the day of judgment, because the Father 'hath put the times and seasons in his own power, and the Father will reveal them when he thinks meet; and therefore it is no part of the office of the Son to know, that is, to determine and declare the day of judgment."

Some of the Lutheran commentators say that our Lord knew "in respect to possession, but not in respect to use." That is, he might possess but not use this knowledge.

Waterland:111 "He denies the knowledge of the day of judgment, but in respect of his human nature; in which respect also he is said to have increased in wisdom, Luke 2:52; the divine Logos having, with the human nature, assumed the ignorance and other infirmities proper to it."

Schaff, in Lange, on Matthew 24:36: "Christ could, of course, not lay aside, in the incarnation, the metaphysical attributes of his divine nature, such as eternity; but he could, by an act of his will, limit his attributes of power and his knowledge, and refrain from their use as far as it was necessary for his humiliation."

Alford: "In the course of humiliation undertaken by the Son, in which he increased in wisdom (Luke 2:52), learned obedience (Hebrews 5:8), uttered desires in prayer (Luke 6:12, etc.)—-this matter was hidden from him."

(I  LIKE  THE  LAST  TWO  EXPLANATIONS.  IT  IS  ALSO  A  TRUTH  THAT  JESUS  WILLFULLY  DID  NOT  CHOOSE  TO  KNOW  EVERY  DETAIL  IN  THE  PHYSICAL  LIFE,  OF  THOSE  HE  KNEW,  HENCE  WOULD  ASK  THEM  ABOUT  THIS  OR  THAT.  AGAIN  THE  TRUTH  IS  HERE  SHOWN  THAT  CHRIST  DOES  NOT  HAVE  ALL  AUTHORITY;  THE  SUPREME  GOD  THE  FATHER  IS  GREATER  IN  AUTHORITY,  AND  HE  IT  SEEMS  FROM  JESUS'  WORDS  IS  THE  ONLY  ONE  TO  KNOW  THE  DAY/S  OF  JUDGMENT,  OR  THE  DAY  OF  CHRIST  RETURN  TO  EARTH.  JESUS  IS  QUITE  WILLING  TO  ACCEPT  THAT  AUTHORITY,  KNOWING  ALL  WILL  ONE  DAY  COME  TO  PASS  AS  THE  FATHER  HAS  DECIDED  -  Keith Hunt)

Omnipresence

Everywhere present

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

Matthew 18:20

Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.

Matthew 28:20

Not omnipresent

For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always.

Matthew 26:11

Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.

Luke 24:15

Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place.

John 5:13

And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless, let us go unto him.

John 11:15

……

111 Works, ii. 163 (Oxford edition, 1856).

……

The first texts refer to his spiritual presence with his people; the second series relates to his visible presence, in the body. Paul, in Colossians 2:5, employs language of a quite similar import.

Holiness

He is holy

He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

Isaiah 53:9

In all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

Hebrews 4:15

Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.

Hebrews 7:26

Is sin

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

2 Corinthians 5:21

The word "sin," in the latter text, doubtless means "sin-offering."112 In this view concur Augustine, Ambrose, Erasmus, Lightfoot, Macknight, Stuart, Whitby, and many other commentators.

Chrysostom says, "Him who knew no sin, who was righteousness itself, he hath made sin; that is, hath suffered to be condemned as a sinner, to die as a person accursed."

De Wette and Alford give the passage a somewhat different turn, thus: Sin, i.e. Christ on the cross was the representative of sin—of the sin of the world.

With a singular obliquity of mind and heart, F. W Newman 113 says of our Savior, as represented in the Gospels, "I almost doubt whether, if one wished to draw the character of a vain and vacillating pretender, it would be possible to draw anything more to the purpose than this," and expresses his "conviction," that "in consistency of goodness Jesus fell far below vast numbers of his unhon-ored disciples."

What must be our estimate of a man who can thus coolly ignore the verdict of the ages, and wantonly revolt the moral sense of Christendom, by suffering his pen to trace such atrocious sentiments as these?

(YES  TERRIBLE  WORDS  FROM  NEWMAN.  IN  HIMSELF  JESUS  WAS  HOLY  AND  SINLESS;  BUT  HE  TOOK  UPON  HIMSELF  OUR  SINS,  TO  DIE  FOR  US;  THE  PENALTY  OF  SIN  DEMANDS  DEATH  IN  GOD'S  PLAN.  THE  HOLY  ONE,  BECAME  SIN  BY  TAKING  OUR  SINS  IN  HIS  DEATH,  SO  WE  COULD  BE  FORGIVE  OUR  SINS,  AND  HAVE  SALVATION  BY  GRACE  THROUGH  FAITH  -  Keith Hunt)

Blessed

God hath blessed thee for ever.

Psalm 45:2

All nations shall call him blessed.

Psalm 72:17

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.

Revelation 5:12

A curse

Christ hath  redeemed  us  from  the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.

Galatians 3:13

112 Sehleusner, Lexicon to the LXX, defines the original Greek term, as "peccatum, etiam poena peccati, et sacrificium piaculare." Biel gives, also, "sacrificium pro peccato." Examples of the secondary signification are Ezekiel 43:22; 44:29; 45:22. According to Gesenius, the corresponding Hebrew term, with two kindred words, means both sin and sin-offering. Fuerst says [hEBREW GIVEN] denotes sin in 1 Samuel 20:1; Psalm 59:4; Job 13:23; and sin-offering in Exodus 29:14; Leviticus 4:3. The Greek word mentioned above has clearly its secondary or Hebraistic sense in 2 Corinthians 5:21. 

113 Phases of Faith, chap. vii. (third edition).

……

Luther and some other commentators, taking the language in Galatians literally, have supposed that by some mysterious transference of human guilt to Christ, he actually became a sinner. This interpretation is, however, uncalled far, and repugnant to our feelings.

Conybeare renders: "He became accursed for our sakes."

Ellicott and Meyer think that the abstract word "katara," curse, is chosen instead of the concrete, to "express with more force the completeness of the satisfaction which Christ made to the law."

Barnes: "Jesus was subjected to what was regarded as an accursed death. He was treated in his death as if he, had been a criminal."

As Christ suffered in the stead of those upon whom the curse properly devolved, he might be styled "accursed," or, in the sense just explained, a "curse" for us.

Mercy

He is merciful

For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives but to save them.

Luke 9:56

For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

Luke 19:10

Unmerciful

Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.

Revelation 6:16

Called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. Revelation 19:11

And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

Revelation 19:13

And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

Revelation 19:15

De Wette114 says that these latter passages "glow with the spirit of Messianic revenge." The apparent difficulty is easily obviated. Just in proportion as any being loves holiness, in that proportion will he hate sin. Christ, being

……

1 Introd. to New Testament, p. 376.

……

perfectly holy, being also a wise and benevolent sovereign, cannot but be most powerfully impelled to reward virtue, and to punish and exterminate vice. The texts to which exception is taken, are vivid, figurative expressions of the infinitely wise, just, and righteous principles which Christ displays in the administration of his kingdom.

(IT  IS  EASY  TO  SEE  ONE  SET  OF  TRUTHS  IS  THE  BASIC  "WHY"  OF  THE  FIRST  COMING  OF  CHRIST;  THE  OTHER  SET  OF  VERSES  ARE  TO  DO  WITH  HIS  SECOND  COMING  -  Keith Hunt)

Spares bruised reed

A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench. Isaiah 42:3

Wields iron sceptre

Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

Psalm 2:9

These passages present the Messiah in a twofold attitude; toward the penitent and humble, and toward the proud and rebellious. The "rod of iron" indicates the strength and crushing force with which he would chastise the revolters; the first text brings to view the tender compassion which he would exercise toward the dejected and helpless. The same mouth which breathed the tender words, "Come unto, me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,"115 could, without any incongruity, thunder at those scoffing hypocrites, the scribes and Pharisees, the terrible denunciation, "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?"116

Courage and Fortitude

Shrunk at death

Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.

John 12:27

Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared.

Hebrews 5:7

Met it composedly

He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Philippians2:8

Theophylact, Grotius, Tholuck, Barnes, and others, take the Savior's words interrogatively, thus: "Shall I say, Father, save me from this hour?" This interpretation makes good sense, and accords well with the context.

……

115 Matthew 11:28.

116 Matthew 23:33.

……

Hebrews 5:7 may be rendered: "He was heard on account of, his pious resignation"-—or, "because of his reverence." So, in substance, Afford, Barnes, Bleek, Conybeare, Delitzsch, Luther, Robinson, Tyndale, and all the Greek commentators.

Prof Stuart, following in substance the common version, maintains that it was not death which Christ "feared"; he dreaded lest he should sink under the agony of being deserted by his Father. In this respect he was "heard," and received divine aid.117 Either interpretation dispels the difficulty.

(THE  FATHER  HEARD  AND  HELPED  HIS  SON  DO  WHAT  THE  FATHER  SENT  HIM  TO  DO;  BEING  HUMBLE  AND  RESPECTFUL  HE  WAS  HEARD,  EVEN  TO  SAVE  HIM  FROM  DEATH  IN  RAISING  HIM  TO  IMMORTAL  LIFE  -  Keith Hunt)

Veracity

His witness true

Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true: for I know whence I came and whither I go.

John 8:14

Not true

If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.

John 5:31

Grotius takes the first passage as a mere hypothesis, "even though I should bear witness of myself," etc. Bishop Pearce, Wakefield, and others render the second text thus: "If I bear witness of myself, is not my witness true?" Should the common version be retained, the meaning is, "If I alone bear witness of myself" The Mosaic law required at least two witnesses.118 Jesus therefore admits that his own testimony alone would not be "true"; that is, would not be regarded as legal-proof; hence he proceeds to adduce the corroborative testimony of another.

Andrew Fuller:119 "The first passage sets forth his testimony as it was in itself; the second as it was in the account of men. . . . Admitting their laws or rules of evidence, his testimony would not have been credible; and therefore in the verses following he appeals to that of John the Baptist, and the works which he had wrought in his Father's name, which amounted to a testimony from the Father."

Alford: The assertion in chapter 5 was, that his own unsupported witness (supposing that possible) would not be trustworthy, but that his testimony was supported by, and in fact coincident with, that of the Father. The very same argument is used in chapter 8, but the other side of it presented to us. He does witness of himself, because his testimony is the testimony of the Father who witnesseth in him.

……

117 Luke 22:43.

118 Deuteronomy 19:15.

119 Works, i. 679.

……

Received human testimony

And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

John 15:27

Did not receive it

But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be

saved.

John 5:34

"I receive not," etc.; that is, the "testimony" of which I have spoken is not derived from human sources. It is infinitely more authoritative and conclusive than man's witness would be. I need not human testimony for myself; I merely adduce it for your sakes, that "ye might be saved."

Mission

Peace

The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end.

Isaiah 9:6-7

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.

John 14:27

War

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.

Matthew 10:34-36

That is, the object of his mission was peace, but a result of it would, in many cases, be strife and war. Often, in securing a valuable end, we cannot avoid certain incidental evils. The object of the surgeon in amputating a diseased limb is the preservation of life, yet pain, as an incidental evil, follows the stroke of his scalpel.

A religion of inherent, radical purity could not be promulgated in the world without awakening the fierce antagonism of everything impure and evil. Hence would arise strife and division, bitter conflicts—as incidental evils, the grand, ultimate, unvarying object being, nevertheless, holiness and peace.

(ISAIAH  IS  A  PROPHECY  YET  TO  BE  REALIZED.  THERE  IS  PEACE  FOR  THE  SAINT  IN  CHRIST.  BUT  THE  WORK  OF  CHRIST  WILL  AS  GOD  CALLS  SOME  AND  NOT  OTHERS,  CAUSE  CONFLICT  BETWEEN  PEOPLE  -  Keith Hunt)

Extended to all men

I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.

Isaiah 49:6

Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all.

1 Timothy 2:5-6

To Israelites alone

Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Matthew 10:5-6

I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Matthew 15:24

He made atonement, "tasted death," for every man, and the benefits of his mediation are, to a certain extent, enjoyed by all, but his personal mission was chiefly to the "house of Israel." And the first, but not the later, mission of the apostles was similarly restricted.

(THEY  ARE  WORDS  FOR  A  TIME  PERIOD; THE  EVENTUAL  LARGE  SCALE  WORK;  THE  BEGINNING  WORK  OF  THE  GOSPEL  -  Keith Hunt)

To the Samaritans

And sent messengers before his face; and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him.

Luke 9:52

And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.

Luke 17:11

He left Judea, and departed again into Galilee. And he must needs go through Samaria.

John 4:3-4

So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. And many more believed because of his own word.

John 4:40-41

To Jews only

He departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judaea, beyond Jordan.

Matthew 19:1

The woman was a Greek, a Syro-phenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.

Mark 7:26-27

"It is impossible," says Zeller,120 "to reconcile these different accounts." Now the truth is that the infrequent exceptions alluded to in the first series of texts only prove the general rule, that Christ's personal mission was to the Jews. The mere fact that, in journeying from Judea to Galilee, he passed through Samaria, which lay between the two, or that he wrought a miracle upon one Samaritan, and virtually commended another,121 or that he actually tarried two whole days in Sychar, does not, in the slightest, militate against the certainty that his personal ministry-was among the children of Israel.

(ONE  WAS  THE  OVERALL  MISSION  AND  WORK  OF  CHRIST,  THE  OTHER  THE  EXCEPTIONS  DURING  THE  OVERALL  -  Keith Hunt)

To fulfil the law

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

Matthew 5:17

To redeem from its curse

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.

Galatians 3:13

He came to carry out the great end of the law, to secure the righteousness of man. He "fulfilled," perfectly obeyed, the moral law, while in him, as the great Antitype, the types and figures of the ceremonial law culminated and

……

120 Strauss and Renan, p. 79. 

121 Luke 17:16 and 10:33-37.

……

were fulfilled. At the same time, he came, to redeem, by his atonement, penitent sinners from the "curse," the penalty of the law.

(CHRIST  CAME  TO  FULFIL  THE  CORRECT  RIGHTEOUSNESS  OF  THE  LAW,  AND  THE  "TYPES"  IN  THE  LAW  THAT  POINTED  TO  HIM.  HE  REDEEMED  PEOPLE  FROM  THE  LAW'S  DEATH  PENALTY,  WHICH  WAS  INDEED  A  CURSE  TO  ALL  SINNERS,  AND  AS  PAUL  SAID  "ALL  HAVE  SINNED"  -  THE  DEATH  PENALTY  CURSE  WAS  ON  ALL  PEOPLE  -  CHRIST  TOOK  OUR  SINS  AND  DIED  FOR  US  -  Keith Hunt)

To judge the world

For the Father judgeth no man; but hath committed all judgment unto the Son... and hath given him authority to execute judgment also.

John 5:22,27

Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.

John 9:39

Not to

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

John 3:17

Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man.

John 8:15

And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.

John 12:47

The Greek word "krino" has the distinct, though associated, meanings, to judge merely, and to condemn. In some of the above passages it seems to be used in one sense, in others a different one is employed. Jesus came, in a sense, to "judge" the world, that is, to determine, by means of the gospel, the moral status, and consequent final destiny of men; yet his primary object was not to condemn men, though, in the process of judgment, the condemnation of some will be a certain, although incidental, result. "I judge no man," i.e. after your manner, or else, during my present mission. At his second coming he will in the ultimate and highest sense, "judge the world."

Miracles

Proof of divine mission

And Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord,  and his servant Moses.

Exodus 14:31

Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up.

Matthew 11:3-5

Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

John 3:2

The works which, the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.

John 5:36

God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will.

Hebrews 2:4

Not a proof

Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents.

Exodus 7:11-12

And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.

Exodus 8:7

If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with  all your soul.

Deuteronomy 13:1-3

For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

Matthew 24:24

And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges.

Luke 11:19

Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders.

2 Thessalonians 2:9

And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those, miracles.

Revelation 13:13-14

On this general subject, we may say that miracles are one, but not the only proof of the divine mission of a religious teacher. His own character and claims, as well as the nature of his miracle, and of the doctrine he propounds, must be taken into the account. There are two or three preliminary questions which must be considered before we proceed further.

1. What constitutes a miracle? We give various answers. Dr. Charles Hodge:122 "An event, occurring in the external world, which involves the suspension or counteracting of some natural law, and which can be referred to nothing but the immediate power of God." "After all," he says elsewhere, "the suspension or violation of the laws of nature involved in miracles is nothing more than is constantly taking place around us. One force counteracts another; vital force keeps the chemical laws of matter in abeyance; and muscular force can control the action of physical force. When a man raises a weight from the ground, the law of gravity is neither suspended nor violated, but counteracted by a stronger force. The same is true as to the walking of Christ on the water, and the swimming of the iron at the command of the prophet."

……

1 Theology, Vol. ii. p. 75, and Vol. i. p. 621.

……

Prof. Park:123 "A miracle is a violation of the laws of matter and of finite mind in their established method of operating." Or, more specifically, "a phenomenon which occurs in violation of the laws of nature as they commonly operate, and which is designed to attest the divine authority of the messenger in whose behalf it occurs."

Archbishop Trench:124 "An extraordinary divine causality belongs to the very essence of the miracle... Beside and beyond the ordinary operations of nature, higher powers (higher, not as coming from a higher source, but as bearing upon higher ends), intrude and make themselves felt even at the very springs and sources of her power."

Bleek 125 and Schleiermacher: "A miracle is an event only relatively supernatural; not absolutely violating the laws which God has established, but brought about by a hidden cooperation (rarely exercised in this manner) of other and higher laws than those which appear in ordinary phenomena."

2. What is the legitimate force of a miracle? John Foster has the remark that a miracle is the ringing of the great bell of the universe calling the multitudes to hear the sermon. Bishop Butler: "Revelation itself is miraculous, and miracles are the proof of it." Pascal: "Miracles test doctrine, and doctrine tests miracles." Rothe: "Miracles and prophecies are not adjuncts appended from without to a revelation in itself independent of them, but constitutive elements of the revelation itself." Gerhard:126 "The doctrine is the title-deed, and is essential to the significance of the seal attached to it. The miracle is the seal, and is important for the authority of the title-deed. The seal torn away from the parchment cannot fulfil its main design, and the parchment with the seal cut out is lessened in value."

Dr. Hodge:127 "When a man presents himself as a messenger of God, whether he is to be received as such or not depends, first, on the doctrines which he teaches, and, secondly, upon the works which he performs. If he not only teaches doctrines conformed to the nature of God and consistent with the laws of our own constitution, but also performs works which evince divine power, then we know not only that the doctrines are true, but also that the teacher is sent of God."

Dr. Thomas Arnold:128 "You complain of those persons who judge of a revelation not by its evidence, but by its substance. It has always seemed to me that

……

123 MS. Lectures. See, also, Smith's Bib. Diet., Art. "Miracles," appendix by Professor Park.

124  Notes on Miracles, p. 18.

125 Introd. to New Testament, i. 221.

126 Smith's Bib. Diet, Vol. iii. pp. 1960-1968.

127  Theology, i. 636.

128 Life, ii. 202 (Popular edition, Boston, 1871).

……

its substance is a most essential part of its evidence; and that miracles wrought in favour of what was foolish or wicked would only prove Manicheism. We are so perfectly ignorant of the unseen world, that the character of any supernatural power can only be judged of by the moral character of the statements which it sanctions: thus only can we tell whether it be a revelation from God or from the devil."

Trench:129 "A miracle does not prove the truth of a doctrine, or the divine mission of him that brings it to pass. That which alone it claims for him, at the outset, is a right to be listened to; it puts him in the alternative of being from heaven, or from hell. The doctrine must first commend itself to the conscience as being good, and only then can the miracle seal it as divine. But the first appeal is from the doctrine to the conscience, to the moral nature in man."

John Locke:130 "Though the common experience and the ordinary course of things have justly a mighty influence on the minds of men, to make them give or refuse credit to anything proposed to their belief: yet there is one case wherein the strangeness of the fact lessens not the assent to a fair testimony given of it. For where such supernatural events are suitable to ends aimed at by him who has the power to change the course of nature, there, under such circumstances, they may be the fitter to procure belief, by how much the more they are beyond, or contrary to, ordinary observation. This is the proper case of miracles, which, well attested, do not only find credit themselves, but give it also to other truths, which need such confirmation."

Dr. Thomas Brown:131 "A miracle is not a violation of any law of nature. It involves, therefore, primarily, no contradiction nor physical absurdity. It has nothing in it which is inconsistent with our belief of the most undeviating uniformity of nature; for it is not the sequence of a different event when the preceding circumstances have been the same; it is an effect that is new to our observation, because it is the result of new and peculiar circumstances. The antecedent has been, by supposition, different; and it is not wonderful, therefore, that the consequent should be different. It is essential, indeed, for our belief of any miraculous event, that there should be the appearance of some gracious purpose, which the miracle may be supposed to fulfil; since all which we know of the operation of the divine power in the universe indicates some previous purpose of that kind."

We are now prepared to see the distinction between true miracles and other events which might be confounded with them. A genuine miracle tends

……

129  On Miracles, p. 27.

130  On Human Understanding, Bookiv., chap. xvi. sect. 18.

131 On Relation of Cause and Effect, pp. 224, 230.

……

to confirm the associated doctrine, and is in turn sanctioned by it, while both the doctrine and the miracle commend themselves to our reason as worthy of the Author of nature. It obviously follows that not every strange feat is to be regarded as a "miracle." The almost incredible performances of certain jugglers, contemplating no great moral end, are not to be classed with "miracles," but are to be attributed to "sleight-of-hand," or to a knowledge of certain occult laws and forces of nature. The wonders wrought with fire,132 in the Middle Ages, which men then regarded as miracles, we now see to have been mere tricks, utterly unworthy of the intervention of the Divine Being.

Again, it must be remembered that, as Trench 133 has clearly shown, Satan's kingdom has its own miracles, as well as the divine kingdom, and these really involve the intervention of spiritual and supernatural agencies coming from the realm of darkness. Not being "miracles," in the very highest sense of the word, they only partake in part of the essential elements of the miracle. They exhibit "not the omnipotence of God wielding his own world to ends of grace and wisdom and love, but evil permitted to intrude into the hidden springs of things, just so far as may suffice for its own deeper confusion in the end, and, in the meanwhile, for the needful trial and perfecting of God's saints and servants."

Alford: "Miracles, as such, are no test of truth, but have been permitted to, and prophesied of, false religions and teachers." For illustration of this statement, he refers to several of the texts quoted at the head of this article.

As to the feats of the magicians of Egypt, Bush, Dwight, and others think they were merely the tricks of skilful jugglers.134 Many commentators, however, seem disposed to recognize the supernatural character of the feats ascribed to the magicians.

Keil: "With our very limited acquaintance with the dark domain of heathen conjuring, the possibility of their working 'lying wonders after the working of Satan,' i.e. supernatural things (2 Thessalonians 2:9), cannot be absolutely denied." He adds, "In the persons of the conjurers Pharaoh summoned the might of the gods of Egypt to oppose the might of Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews."

Trench: "Rather was this a conflict not merely between Egypt's king and the power of God; but the gods of Egypt, the spiritual powers of wickedness, which underlay, and were the soul of, that dark and evil kingdom, were in conflict with the God of Israel."

……

132 See Brewster's Letters on Natural Magic, Letter 12.

133 Notes on Miracles, pp. 25-27.

134 Compare Davidson's cart remarks on this point; Introd. to Old Testament i. pp. 221-222.

……

Hengstenberg:135 "The object to which all of these occurrences were directed, according to chapter 8:20, was to show that Jehovah is Lord in the midst of the land." This critic thinks that the author of the Pentateuch does not speak definitely upon the nature and origin of the results produced by the Egyptian magicians, and that there is nothing existing which can give us any information concerning his opinion.

As to Deuteronomy 13, we have seen that the miracle per se, apart from the message, is not conclusive proof of the divine mission of the thaumaturgist. In this specific case, if the miracle-worker should inculcate "idolatry"—which had been most strictly and explicitly forbidden by Jehovah-—this single circumstance was to be taken as absolute evidence that he was a false prophet and a deceiver. Hence, the "miracle" would, in such case, be simply the work of Satan, which God suffered to be wrought for the purpose of testing man's loyalty and fidelity to him.

The "great signs and wonders," in Matthew 24, if of a supernatural character, are like those we have just mentioned.

Luke 11:19 was a home-thrust, an argumentum ad hominem. He said, in substance, "I cast out devils, as also your sons claim to do. Now, if, as you assume, the exorcist is in league with Satan, how is it with your own sons?"

As to 2 Thessalonians 2:9, Trench says, "They are 'lying wonders,' not because in themselves frauds and illusions, but because they are wrought to support the kingdom of lies." Or, as Alford says, they "have falsehood for their base and essence and aim."

Much the same may be said with reference to the text in Revelation, which Alford interprets as delineating one characteristic of the Papal church, the claim to work "miracles" of various kinds.

This topic may be dismissed with the single remark that, inasmuch as the miracles and the doctrine of our Savior are, at the same time, congruous with each other, and worthy of God, the miracles may fairly be urged in corroboration of the divinity of his mission.

Modes of Representing Him

Honorable

Unto you therefore which believe he is precious.136

1 Peter 2:7

Despised

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were bur faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Isaiah 53:3

……

135 Egypt and the Books of Moses, pp. 98,104-105. 

136 The original word properly means an honour.

……

These two texts contemplate quite different classes of persons; the one, those who, being spiritually enlightened, see the real character and glory of the Messiah; the other, those who are still in the darkness and blindness of sin.

Uncomely

As a root out of a dry ground: he hath, no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

Isaiah 53:2

Lovely

My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand... . His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend.

Canticles 5:10,16

There is no proof that these last texts refer to the Messiah. If they do so, it only need be said that he is despised by some persons, and admired by others.

A lion

Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. 

Revelation 5:5

A lamb

And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!

John 1:36

In one aspect, he is termed a "lion" in another a "lamb." The term "lion" brings out the idea of his dominion, as well as that of his descent from the tribe of Judah;137 the lamb was an emblem of innocence, and was usually offered in sacrifice.

High Priest

We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.

Hebrews 8:1

A sacrifice

He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. . . . Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.

Hebrews 9:26,28

In making the atonement, he voluntarily laid down his own life; he "gave himself 'a ransom for all'; he was the offerer and the offered, both priest and victim. On the term "high priest," Alford says, "the propitiatory, sacerdotal representative of men before God."

A vine

I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

John 15:5

A stone

Jesus Christ himself being the chief

corner stone.

Ephesians 2:20

And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient.

1 Peter 2:8

……

137 See Genesis 49:9.

……

The figure of the "vine" and "branches" sets forth the intimate, vital union Christ and his people, together with their entire dependence upon him for spiritual nutriment and growth. Alford: "The inner unity of himself and his."

The term "stone" metaphorically presents Jesus as the "foundation" upon which his people build; also as the occasion of the "stumbling" and final over-throw of his enemies.

A shepherd

I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

John 10:11

Our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep.

Hebrews 13:20

The   Shepherd  and  Bishop   of your souls.

1 Peter 2:25

A sheep

He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth.

Acts 8:32

Washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Revelation 7:14

The first figure represents his tender, watchful care and oversight of his "little flock"; the second brings to view the meekness and innocence of his personal character, together with the fact that he, like a lamb, was offered as a sacrifice.

Door

I am the door: by me if any man enter, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

John 10:9

Bread

I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

John 6:51

The first text points out the fact that Christ is the only medium of access to the Father; that in his name, by his aid, and through his atonement, we come to God. The second text implies that as material bread must be eaten, digested, assimilated by us, for the maintenance of physical life, so Christ's spirit and teachings must be received into our hearts and incorporated in our lives, in order to our spiritual vitality.

The Light of the world 

"That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

John 1:9

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

John 9:5

Men are lights

Ye are the light of the world.

Matthew 5:14

He was a burning and a shining light.

John 5:35

Among whom ye shine as lights in the world.

Philippians 2:15

In the primary and highest sense, Christ is the Light of the world; in a secondary and subordinate sense, Christians, viewed as receiving and reflecting his light, maybe designated as the "light of the world."

The Foundation

For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:11

Men are foundations 

And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.

Ephesians 2:20

The church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.

1 Timothy 3:15-16

It is not clear that the quotation from Ephesians implies that the apostles and prophets were themselves the "foundation"; the meaning probably is the foundation which pertained to them-—their foundation. Similarly, "sword of the Spirit"138 means the Spirit's sword. Meyer, Ellicott, Stier, and others say, "the foundation which the apostles and prophets have laid." Alford and Bucer: "the apostles' and prophet's foundation—that upon which they as well as yourselves are built."

On the last quoted text, Ellicott says that "pillar" and "ground," designating the church, are "only simple, metaphorical expressions of the stability and permanence of the support," and adds, "were there no church, there would be no witness, no guardian of archives, no basis, nothing whereon acknowledged truth could rest." Chrysostom, Theodoret, Tholuck, Luther, Calvin, Beza, Grotius, De Wette, Huther, Alford, and Wordsworth concur in this view, deeming the church "the element in which, and medium by which, the truth is conserved and upheld." But if we admit that, in this secondary sense, the church is the "ground" or basis of the truth, it must be remembered that Christ is, after all, the deep substructure, the foundation, of the church itself.

It should be added that Oosterzee, with a host of critics, punctuates the passage differently, thus: "The pillar and ground of the truth, and confessedly great, is the mystery of godliness," etc. With this translation the Syriac Peshito closely corresponds.

(THE  NT  CHURCH  IS  A  PILLAR  AND  GROUND  FOR  TRUTH;  THE  FRAMEWORK  THAT  THE  NEW  COVENANT  IS  SET  ON,  BUILT  UPON  THE  APOSTLES  OF  THE  NT  AND  THE  PROPHETS  OF  THE  OT;  BUT  MOST  IMPORTANT  CHRIST  IS  THE  FOUNDATION  STONE,  AS  IT  ALL  HAS  COME  THROUGH  HIM,  BOTH  OLD  [GOD  OF  THE  OT]  AND  NEW [SAVIOR  AND  FOUNDER  OF  THE  NT].

Sacrifice

Died for friends

I lay down my life for the sheep.

John 10:15

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

For enemies

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us... When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.

Romans 5:8,10

……

1 See Ephesians 6:17.

……

He laid down his life for those who, though "enemies" for the time being were prospectively "friends." This exhibition of his love broke down their enmity, and transformed their hostility into friendship.

The former passages refer to the prospective, the latter to the present, attitude toward him, of those for whom he died. On the first text from John, Alford says, "The Lord lays down his life strictly and properly, and in the depths of the divine counsel, for those who are his sheep." On the second text, "Our Lord does not assert of himself that he laid down his life only for his friends (as defined in the next verse), but puts forward this side of his love as a great and practical example for his followers."

Laid down his own life

I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.

John 10:17-18

Jews murdered him

Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.

Acts 2:23

And killed the Prince of life.

Acts 3:15

The Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers.

Acts 7:52

Both statements are true, and there is not the slightest discrepancy. The simple fact is that Jesus, knowing perfectly the hatred, power, and purpose of the Jews, voluntarily surrendered himself into their hands; whereupon they "with malice aforethought and prepense," took his life. He laid down his own life, and they killed him.

Intercession

The only Mediator

One mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

1 Timothy 2:5

Holy Spirit intercedes

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groan-ings which cannot be uttered.

Romans 8:26

The last text when properly translated, does not assert that the Holy Spirit actually intercedes for Christians, but simply intervenes for their aid.

Barnes: "It simply means that the Holy Spirit greatly aids or assists; not by praying for us, but in our prayers and infirmities." Stuart: Prayer or supplication made by the Spirit is not here intended. The Spirit "maketh intercession" by exciting in Christians such longings for conformity to God, deliverance from evil, and the enjoyment of future blessedness as no language can adequately express.

Alford: "No intercession in heaven is here spoken of, but a pleading in us by the indwelling Spirit, of a nature above our comprehension and utterance."

(THIS  IS  WHERE  THE  SO-CALLED  "SCHOLARS"  DO  NOT  READ  THE  CONTEXT  OF  ROMANS  8.  IF  THEY  DID  THEY  WOULD  SEE  THE  "SPIRIT"  MENTIONED  IS  CHRIST.  VERSE  26, 27,  IS  CLEAR,  IT  IS  THE  SPIRIT  INTERCEDING  FOR  US.  VERSE  34  TELLS  US  IT  IS  CHRIST  WHO  INTERCEDES  FOR  US.  THE  SPIRIT  IS  NOT  SOME  THIRD  PERSONAL  BEING  OF  A  "TRINITY"  GODHEAD.  THE  SPIRIT  IS  THE  NATURE  AND  POWER  THAT  BELONGS  TO  BOTH  THE  FATHER  AND  SON.  HENCE  USING  THE  WORD  "SPIRIT"  IN  PERSONIFICATION,  APPLIES  TO  EITHER  THE  FATHER  OR  SON.  IN  ROMANS  8  THE  CONTEXT [VERSE 34]  IT  IS  APPLIED  TO  THE  SON - CHRIST.  THIS  IS  WHERE  THE  FALSE  "TRINITY"  TEACHING  CONFOUNDS  THE  SCHOLARS  TO  HAVE  TO  DENY  THE  CLEAR  WORDS  USED  IN  ROMANS  8.  THERE  IS  INDEED  ONLY  ONE  THAT  MAKES  INTERCESSION  FOR  US - CHRIST  JESUS - FULL  OF  THE  SPIRIT  NATURE  AND  POWER  OF  THE  GODHEAD  -  Keith Hunt)

Intercedes not for the world

I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me: for they are thine.

John 17:9

Does intercede for it

If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

1 John 2:1

As the connection evinces, the first text is equivalent to, "I am not now, at this time, praying for the world." The prayer in the 17th of John was offered specially for the disciples. This fact, however, furnishes no proof that Jesus does not, at present, intercede for all mankind.

(DURING  THE  PRAYER  OF  JOHN  17  IT  WAS  INDEED  FOR  THE  SAINTS  AT  THAT  TIME.  I  JOHN  2:1  IS  ALSO  FOR  THE  SAINTS.,  THE  CONTEXT  IS  ABOUT  SAINTS  NOT  THE  SINNERS  OF  THE  WORLD   AT  LARGE.  BOTH  ARE  TO  DO  WITH  THE  SAINTS.  CAN  CHRIST  BE  AN  ADVOCATE  FOR  THOSE  NOT  CALLED,  BUT  IN  SPIRITUAL  BLINDNESS?  YES  INDEED  IF  HE  SO  DECIDES.  VARIOUS  MERCIES  AND  BLESSINGS  CAN  BE  GIVEN  TO  ANYONE;  AS  JESUS  SAID  GOD  SENDS  THE  RAIN  ON  THE  JUST  AND  THE  UNJUST.  IF  GOD  DOES  NOT  CALL  SOMEONE  TO  SALVATION,  THAT  IS  HIS  DOING,  IN  THEIR  LIFE  AT  THIS  TIME [ROMANS  9 - 11]  SO  CHRIST  CAN  STILL  SHOW  THEM  KINDNESS  ON  THEIR  BEHALF  WITH  THE  FATHER  -  Keith Hunt)

………………..

TO  BE  CONTINUED

CONTRADICTIONS OF THE BIBLE #4

CHRIST  continued

Coming

In humble guise

Behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.

Zechariah 9:9

With regal state

Behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom.

Daniel 7:13-14

These passages refer to entirely different events. The first was fulfilled when our Savior rode into Jerusalem upon the ass; the second will be fulfilled when he shall come again, "in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory."139

Succeeds overthrow of Jerusalem

For then shall be great tribulation … Immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened ... And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven.

Matthew 24:21,29-30

Times of Gentiles intervene
Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory.

Luke 21:24,27

This is one of Zeller's objections. He claims that the two accounts are incompatible because one seems to represent the coming of Christ as following,

……

139 Compare Matthew 21:1-11 and 24:30.

……

without any interval, the "tribulation"; the other, the two events as separated by the "times of the Gentiles."

The difference, however, is easily accounted for upon the hypothesis that Matthew employs here what we may term "prophetic perspective," while Luke is writing somewhat circumstantially and minutely. By this "perspective," which has a beautiful analogy in a familiar, philosophical experiment, a comparatively small event close to the speaker, appears of equal magnitude with a momentous but remote event, so that the latter seems hidden by the former, or continuous with it. As the observer looks down the vista of the ages, the small covers the Lage event, and the two seem but one.

On this point, Dr. Davidson140 says, "Intervening periods were mostly concealed from the sight of the seer." Bleek 141 says that in respect to time, "the prophecies are usually so framed that they have a perspective character, great developments and catastrophes, occurring at considerable intervals of time, appearing to be brought close together, or to be quite intermixed."

Lange:142 "According to the perspective view of the future, the successive critical events that lie behind each other, are brought near, so that the great epochs rise into light like the tops of mountains, while their times of unfolding, the periods, are concealed behind them, or are manifest only in less prominent signs.

Wordsworth: "Our Lord's prophecy has a double reference-—-to the judgment of Jerusalem, and to that of which this judgment was a type, viz. his second coming to judge the world."

Alford maintains that the destruction of Jerusalem and the final judgment are both enwrapped in the words; the former being prominent in the first part of the chapter, while, from verse 28, the lesser subject begins to be swallowed up in the greater, and our Lord's second coming to be the predominant theme.

The word "immediately," verse 29, being supposed to imply the closest consecution, is the only term involving any difficulty. Hammond and Schott Kiider the Greek term suddenly, i.e. unexpectedly. Glass says it is to be taken, according to our reckoning, but the divine, in which a thousand days are as day. Lange: "Describes the nature of the final catastrophe; that it will be at once swift, surpassingly sudden, and following upon a development seemingly slow and gradual. Thus, throughout the whole course of history, the swift

……

140 Introd. to Old Testament, ii. 481 

141 Introd. to Old Testament, ii. 32. 

142 Com. on Matthew, p. 430.

……

epochs follow the slow process of the periods." Owen: "May be taken in the general sense, very soon after, referring to the comparative brevity of these intervening centuries or ages, when viewed in relation to the ages of eternity, which are to follow the day of judgment, and in reference to which all time is but as a moment's duration." Alford very satisfactorily says: "All the difficulty which this word has been supposed to involve has arisen from confounding the partial fulfilment of the prophecy with the ultimate one. The important insertion in Luke 143 shows us that the 'tribulation' includes 'wrath upon this people,' which, is yet being inflicted; and the treading down of Jerusalem by the Gentiles still going on; and immediately after that tribulation which shall happen when the cup of Gentile iniquity is full, and when the Gospel shall have been preached in all the world fox a witness, and rejected by the Gentiles, shall the coming of the Lord himself happen."

(THEY  MAKE  A BIG  THING  OUT  OF  NOTHING.  THERE  WILL  BE  AN  END  TIME  TRIBULATION; THEN  THE  HEAVENLY  SIGNS;  THEN  THE  RETURN  OF  CHRIST.  DURING  THIS  END  TIME  TRIBULATION  JERUSALEM  WILL  FALL  INTO  THE  HANDS  OF  THE  GENTILES.  CHRIST  WILL  COME.  IT'S  CERTAIN  EVENTS  ALL  WILL  HAPPEN  IN  THE  LAST  3  AND  1/2  YEARS  OF  THIS  AGE.  ALL  FULLY  EXPOUNDED  TO  YOU  ON  MY  WEBSITE  UNDER  "PROPHECY"  -  Keith Hunt)

His coming at hand

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52

The Lord is at hand.

Philippians 4:5

We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

1 Thessalonians 4:15

But the end of all things is at hand.

1 Peter 4:7

It was far off

That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means.

2 Thessalonians 2:2-3

Even De Wette 144 says, "It is no contradiction of the first Epistle that Paul after exhorting them to steadfastly await the second coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:15), felt himself bound to moderate their too excited expectations; and 2 Thessalonians 2:1, etc., is completely in the spirit of primitive Christianity." Similarly, Dr. Davidson, 145 on 1 Corinthians 15:52: "The expression we means such Christians as shall then be alive; all believers then living are grouped together."

On 1 Thessalonians 4:15,17, he says, "Hence we which are alive and remain, etc., can only mean 'such Christians as live and remain.' Paul employs himself and the early Christians as the representatives of those succeeding Christians who should be alive at the Redeemer's second advent. Thus in Deuteronomy 30:1, the

……

143 Chap. 21:23-24.

144 Introd. to New Testament, p. 247.

145 Introd. to New Testament, ii. 458, 465-66.

……

generation addressed is the representative of a succeeding one: and in John 6:32, a succeeding generation is employed to represent a past one."

Andrew Fuller:146 "Everything with respect to degrees is what it is by comparison. Taking into consideration the whole of time, the coming of Christ was 'at hand.' There is reason to believe from this, and many other passages of the New Testament, that the sacred writers considered themselves as having passed the meridian of time, and entered into the afternoon of the world, as we may say. Such appears to be the import of the following among other passages, 'God hath in these last days spoken,' etc. … But taking into consideration only a single generation, the day of Christ was not at hand. The Thessalonians, though a very amiable people, were by some means mistaken on this subject, so as to expect that the end of the world would take place in their lifetime, or within a very few rears. To correct this error, which might have been productive of very serious evils, was a principal design of the second Epistle to that people."

It is thus clear that this "discrepancy" of which Baur makes so much, really amounts to nothing.

(SOME  FEW  VERSES  IT  WOULD  SEEM  THE  APOSTLES  DID  THINK  CHRIST  WOULD  RETURN  SOON,  OR  WITHIN  THEIR  LIFE  TIME.  AS  TIME  WENT  ON  IT  WAS  REVEALED  TO  PAUL  CERTAIN  EVENTS  HAD  TO  TAKE  PLACE  BEFORE  CHRIST  WOULD  RETURN.  A  PROGRESS  INTO  MORE  TRUTH  REVEALED  WITH  TIME,  AND  AS  GOD  REVEALED.  BY  THE  TIME  THE  APOSTLE  JOHN  WAS  NEAR  DEATH,  HE  WAS  GIVEN  THE  BOOK  OF  REVELATION  THAT  ADDED  EVEN  MORE  DEPTH  AND  EXPOUNDING,  CONCERNING  EVENTS  TO  THE  COMING  OF  CHRIST  -  Keith Hunt)

Before missionary journey completed

But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.

Matthew 10:23

Not till the world evangelized

And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

Matthew 24:14

And the gospel must first be published among all nations.

Mark 13:10

Strauss 147 works hard to make out a contradiction here. He remarks: "On one occasion Jesus says to his disciples that the Son of man will return before they shall have completed their Messianic preaching in all the cities of Israel; another time he says that the second advent will not occur until the Gospel has been preached in the whole world among all peoples." The difficulty is obviated by the following interpretations, any one of which may be adopted.

Barnes, on Matthew 10:23: "That is, in fleeing from persecutors, from one city to another, you shall not have gone to every city in Judea, till the destruction at Jerusalem, and the end of the Jewish economy."

Wordsworth: "In a primary sense, you will not have completed your missionary work in Judea before I come to judge Jerusalem. In a secondary and larger

……

146Works, i. 682.

147 See New Life of Jesus, i. 325.

……

sense—the missionary work of the church for the spiritual Israel will not cease till the second coming of Christ. There is a successive series of 'comings of Christ,' all preparatory to, and consummated in, the great coming."

Afford maintains that our Lord's prophecies respecting his coming have an immediate, literal and a distant, foreshadowed fulfillment. Hence he regards "the vengeance on Jerusalem, which historically put an end to the old dispensation, and was, in its place with reference to that order of things, the coming of the Son of man, as a type of the final coming of the Lord." He calls attention to the "wide import of scripture prophecy, which speaks very generally, not so much of events themselves, points of time, as of processions of events, all ranging under one great description," and adds, "It is important to keep in mind the great, prophetic parallels which run through our Lord's discourses, and are sometimes separately, sometimes simultaneously, presented to us by him."

On "Till the Son of man be come," Baumgarten-Crusius says, "Until the victory of the cause of Christ"; Michaelis, "To the destruction of Jerusalem"; Calvin, "To the outpouring of the Holy Spirit;" Norton, "That is, before my religion is established and its truth fully confirmed"; Heubner and Lange, "Till the Son of man shall overtake you," adding, "It points forward to the second coming of Christ; including at the same time the idea that their apostolic labors in Judea would be cut short." Lightfoot: "Ye shall not have travelled over the cities of Israel, preaching the gospel, before the Son of man is revealed by his resurrection."

These interpretations, almost any of which may be adopted without an arbitrary exegesis, serve to show how slight is the foundation for the objection urged by Strauss.

(ALL  ARE  WRONG  IN  THEIR  UNDERSTANDING.  NONE  KNEW  WHO  "ISRAEL"  REALLY  WAS;  NOT  JUST  JUDAH,  BUT  ALL  13 TRIBES,  WHO  WOULD  EVENTUALLY  MAKE  UP  THE  NATIONS  OF  NORTH-WEST  EUROPE,  THE  BRITISH  COMMONWEALTH,  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA.  THE  GOSPEL  WOULD  NOT  HAVE  REACHED  EVERY  TOWN  AND  CITY,  IN  A  PERSONAL  WAY,  BEFORE  CHRIST  WOULD  RETURN. AN  EVER  EVANGELISTIC  GOSPEL  TO  ALL  ISRAEL.  THE  GOSPEL  BEING  PREACHED  TO  ALL  THE  WORLD  WAS  FURTHER  GIVEN  TO  US  IN  THE  BOOK  OF  REVELATION  WHICH  CAME  VIA  JOHN  AT  THE  END  OF  THE  FIRST  CENTURY….. REV. 14:6.  IT  IS  DURING  THE  VERY  LAST  YEAR  OF  THIS  AGE  WHEN  THAT  PROPHECY  WILL  BE  FULFILLED -  THEN  SHORTLY  AFTER  JESUS  WILL  RETURN  -  Keith Hunt)

Kingdom

Not of this world

When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.

John 6:15

Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight. John 18:36

Within the Pharisees

And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

Luke 17:20-21

Ancient interpreters take the expression "within you," as pointing out the fact that the kingdom is an inward, spiritual one, having its seat in the heart. Modern critics say that the kingdom had already been set up among the Pharisees by John the Baptist and the Messiah, the former introducing it, the latter embodying and representing it. Schoettgen: "It does not imply, in your hearts, but in your land and region." Alford: "The kingdom of God was begun among them, and continues thus making its way in the world, without observation of men."

(THE  PHARISEES  WERE  OBSESSED  WITH  THE  PROPHECIES  OF  THE  LITERAL  KINGDOM  ON  EARTH,  SPOKEN  ABOUT  BY  THE  PROPHETS  OF  OLD.  JESUS  TRIES  TO  RE-DIRECT  THEIR  MINDS   TO  THE  PRESENT  REALITY,  THAT  HE  WAS  PREACHING  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  NOW.  AND  PEOPLE  NEEDED  TO  GET  THEMSELVES  INTO  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  NOW,  IN  A  PERSONAL  SPIRITUAL  WAY.  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  IS  BOTH  NOW - SPIRITUALLY - CAN  BE  IN  YOU;  AND  ALSO  IN  THE  FUTURE,  LITERALLY  -  Keith Hunt)

It has no end

And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.

Daniel 7:14

And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever: and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

Luke 1:33

But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.

Hebrews 1:8

Will terminate

Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.... And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. 1 Corinthians 15:24-25, 28

Neander: "Inasmuch as the work of Christ, founded upon his redemptive acts, proceeds toward a definite goal, it must needs come to a termination when this goal is reached." Dr. Hodge: "When he has subdued all his enemies, then he will no longer reign over the universe as Mediator, but only as God, while his headship over his people is to continue forever."

Dr. Davidson148 holds that Christ's kingdom has two departments or branches—one relating to his saints, the other to his enemies. When the purposes of the latter department are fulfilled, he will deliver it up to the Father; the former he will retain forever.

Andrew Fuller:149 "The end of which Paul speaks does not mean the end of Christ's kingdom, but of the world, and the things thereof. The 'delivering up of the kingdom to the Father' will not put an end to it, but eternally establish it in a new and more glorious form. Christ shall not cease to reign, though the mode of his administration be different."

Alford; "The kingdom of Christ over this world, in its beginning, its furtherance, and its completion, has one great end—the glorification of the Father

……,

148 Sacred Hermeneutics, p. 571. 

149 Works,i.678.

……

by the Son. Therefore, when it shall be fully established, every enemy overcome, everything subjected to him, he will—not reign over it and abide its king, but deliver it up to the Father."

Even on this interpretation, the kingdom of the Son will continue. For it is clear that the subjects, laws, and policy of that kingdom will remain unchanged; only the dominion of Christ will "be absorbed in the all-pervading majesty of him for whose glory it was from first to last carried onward." Bengel tersely and admirably expresses the truth, "omnia erunt subordinata Filio, Filius Patri"; All things will be subordinate to the Son, the Son to the Father.

(I  LIKE  ANDREW  FULLER'S  COMMENT,  AS  WELL  AS  THE  LAST   PARAGRAPH  ABOVE. CHRIST  WILL  EVER  REIGN  OVER  THE  ISRAELITES  NOW  IMMORTAL  IN  THE  KINGDOM.  HIS  THRONE  AND  POWER  WILL  NOT  DIMINISH  PER  SE,  BUT  WILL  UNITE  WITH  THE  FATHER,  AS  THE  FATHER  COMES  TO  EARTH,  AS  FORETOLD  IN  REVELATION  21, 22.  CHRIST  WILL  HAND  OVER  TO  THE  SUPREME  AUTHORITY,  THE  FATHER,  THE  KINGDOM  ON  EARTH.  BUT  WITH  THE  FATHER  STILL  RULE  OVER  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  AND  THE  IMMORTAL  ISRAELITES,  FOR  EVER  -  Keith  Hunt)

Name

He bears the Divine Name

In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness.

Jeremiah 23:6

A city bears it

In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our righteousness.

Jeremiah 33:16

Naegelsbach, in Lange, maintains that the word "he," in the expression, "this is his name whereby he shall be called," can refer only to Jerusalem. "Jehovah our Righteousness" is not, then, the name of the scion of David, but of the nation—the idea being that Israel will be a nation, that will have no other righteousness than Jehovah's. If neither text refers to the Messiah, there is, of course, no discrepancy. Even if otherwise, we see nothing improbable in the supposition that the redeemed nation should be called after the name of its Redeemer and King.

(INDEED  IT  IS  QUITE  WITHIN  TRUTH  THAT  BOTH  HE  AND  THE  CITY  THE  SON  OF  GOD  DWELLS  IN,  ARE  CALLED  "THE  LORD  OUR  RIGHTEOUSNESS."  CERTAINLY  THE  LORD  IN  LANGUAGE  CAN  BE, "THE  LORD  OUR  RIGHTEOUSNESS  IS  IN  JERUSALEM…"  AND  ALSO  IN  LANGUAGE  IT  COULD  BE  STATED,  "JERUSALEM,  THE  LORD  OUR  RIGHTEOUSNESS  CITY,  IS  BEAUTIFUL  NOW  HE  IS  THERE." - Keith Hunt)

Note.—The foregoing are-—not indeed all the cases adduced by infidel writers—but all which seem worthy of notice, and to come properly under this head. A considerable number of apparent contradictions pertaining to various events in the life of Christ, are referable to the "historical" department, and will be discussed in a subsequent part of this volume.

………………..

TO  BE  CONTINUED

Doctrinal Discrepancies  of  the  Bible #5

THE SCRIPTURES—Inspiration

All Scripture inspired

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable.

2 Timothy 3:16

Some not so

But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment... But to the rest speak I, not the Lord.

1 Corinthians 7:6,12

That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting.

2 Corinthians 11:17

Many commentators, Origen, Theodoret, Erasmus, Luther, Grotius, Tyndale, Crammer, Hammond, Adam Clarke, Huther, Ellicott, and Alford, agree substantially with the Syriac Peshito in rendering the first text thus: "Every scripture inspired by God is also profitable." The theory involved in this version is sufficiently elastic to allow Paul, while writing under the guidance of inspiration, to occasionally introduce, upon unimportant points, his own uninspired opinion—that opinion being in harmony with the general scope and design of the book.

If, however, with Chrysostom, Gregory of Nyssa, Calvin, Wolf, Bengel, Owen, De Wette, Olshausen, Barnes, Conybeare, Oosterzee, Wordsworth, Dr. Hodge apparently, and others, we read: "Is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable," the texts still admit of a facile interpretation. The first of these quotations means, according to Alford and Conybeare, "I am not now speaking by way of command, but merely expressing my permission." If we adopt this very natural interpretation, the passage does not touch the question of inspiration.

The meaning of the 12th verse may, perhaps, be thus expressed: "But to the rest speak I," that is, I Paul in my apostolic office, speaking, not now from special revelation, but under the general supervision of the Holy Spirit. "Not the Lord," that is, not Christ by any direct command spoken by him, since the question was, one with which he did not deal in his recorded discourses. Hence, in this case—as in the language of the 25th verse, "I have no commandment of the Lord, yet I give my judgment"—Paul was permitted to express his own judgment as to the case under consideration, giving us, at the same time, suitable notice that he is speaking in his own proper person. Yet there is no reason to doubt that the "judgment" he thus expressed, was in complete harmony with "the mind of the Spirit."

Dr. Arnold,157 referring to a text of similar import, the 40th verse of the chapter, deems it a token of God's "especial mercy to us, that our faith in St. Paul's general declarations of divine truth might not be shaken, because in one particular point he was permitted to speak as a man, giving express notice at the time that he was doing so."

"I speak it not after the Lord," 2 Corinthians 11, probably means "not after the example of the Lord." That is, I am constrained to an apparent departure from that example. In vindication of myself from the unjust aspersions of my enemies, I am compelled to speak with seeming boastfulness, as it were, "foolishly." This "glorying after the flesh" was not, however, really contrary to our Lord's example, because it originated, not in love of boasting, but in the necessities of the case.

We thus see that the above texts may be reconciled upon the basis of an intelligent and comprehensive theory of Inspiration.

(PAUL  WOULD  BACK  HIS  POSITION  BY  DIRECT  COMMAND  FROM  THE  LORD;  THEN  WHERE  THERE  WAS  NO  DIRECT  "THUS  SAYS  THE  LORD"  HE  WOULD  GIVE   HIS  JUDGMENT.  BUT  WE  MUST  REMEMBER  AS  HE  ONCE  SAID, "AND  I  HAVE  THE  SPIRIT"  [WORDS  LIKE  THAT].  WHAT  PAUL  WAS  NOW  JUDGING  ON  AND  GIVING  HIS  ANSWER,  BECAME  INSPIRED  SCRIPTURE.  SO  HOW  HE  ANSWERED  UNDER  THAT  SITUATION  IS  NOW  GOD'S  ANSWER  -  Keith Hunt)

Moral Purity

Purity enjoined

Impure ideas suggested

It must be conceded by all candid persons that the general tenor of the Bible is decidedly in favor of purity. Yet, it is objected that certain passages, particularly in the earlier books and in Canticles, are calculated to excite impure thoughts and feelings.

To this we reply:

Many of the expressions which are deemed objectionable are found in the Mosaic Law. Every intelligent person is aware that law books must be very specific and explicit in their phraseology. An examination of any compilation of statutes, or of any standard work on medical jurisprudence, will be conclusive on this point. It is not surprising, then, that the Jewish code of laws contains some expressions that seem coarse. Without great minuteness and perspicuity these statutes would have failed to answer the designed end.

We must bear in mind the great freedom of Oriental speech and manners. In the impassioned style of thought and expression prevalent in the East, there is a license, a warmth, a voluptuousness even, which would shock the fastidious ears of Occidentals. Ideas and objects of which they of the Orient would speak with the utmost freedom, we should indicate, if at all, by euphemism and circumlocution. The Bible was written by Eastern authors, and bears traces of its origin among a people whose customs and habits of thought were widely different from ours. Upon this radical divergence are founded many of the so-called "indelicate" expressions of scripture—-expressions which would strike an

……

157 Miscellaneous Works, p. 287 (Appleton's edition).

……

Oriental ear as perfectly chaste and proper. Prof. Stuart,158 speaking of certain expressions in Canticles, observes, "It is clear that no indecency is intended, and equally clear, as it seems to me, that no improper feelings were excited, by the language in question, in the minds of those who were originally addressed." He also calls attention to the fact that women are excluded, in the East, from public association with men, being kept in seclusion. Hence greater freedom of speech was allowable than in our mixed society. Besides, as Prof. Cowles 159 suggests, the mode of dress in the East being different from ours, certain parts of the body are there exposed which would not be among us. Rev. W. M. Thomson 160 says: "While the face is veiled, the bosom is exposed in a way not at all in accordance with our ideas of propriety."

An Oriental would, as appears, deem it no more indelicate to praise the breasts, than the hair or eyes or hands of a female. Many expressions which are said to offend the taste are due to the baldness and other infelicities of the English version. The Hebrew is far less objectionable on this score. Prof. Stuart161 observes: "The perusal of the original makes much less impression on me of an exceptionable kind than the perusal of our version. It is far more delicate, at least to my apprehension. It were easy to exhibit particulars which would justify this statement."

Isaac Taylor:162 "If a half-dozen heedlessly rendered passages of our English version were amended, as easily they might be, then the Canticle would well consist, throughout, with the purest utterances of conjugal fondness."

Prof. W. H. Green163 says: "There is not the slightest taint of impurity or immodesty to be found in any portion of this elegant lyric." And we think that no one who carefully reads the elegant translations of Zockler, Worthington, Cowles, or Ginsburg, will dissent from this opinion.

Predictions

Privately interpreted

And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? 

Matthew 24:3

Not privately interpreted

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

2 Peter 1:20-21

……

158  Hist, of Old Testament Canon, pp. 377-378 (Revised edition, p. 353).

159 Introd. to Com. on Canticles.

160  Land and Book, i. 174. Hist, of Old Testament Canon, p. 382 (Revised edition, p. 357).

162  Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, pp. 184-185 (London edition).

163  Translation of Zockler, in Lange, p. 102, note.

……

The Greek corresponding to "of any private interpretation" is confessedly obscure. The word "epilusis" occurs in no other passage of the New Testament. Hence the difficulty in determining its precise signification here. That, however, it has any reference to attempts to explain the scriptures in private is maintained by no scholar.

We subjoin various renderings of this passage. The Syriac Peshito: "No prophecy is an exposition of its own text."

Bishop Horsley: "Not any prophecy of scripture is of self-interpretation, or is its own interpreter; because the scripture prophecies are not detached predictions of separate, independent events, but are united in a regular and entire system, all terminating in one grand object—the promulgation of the gospel and the complete establishment of the Messiah's kingdom."

Dr. John Owen: "Not an issue of men's fancied enthusiasms, not a product of their own minds and conceptions, not an interpretation of the will of God by the understanding of man, that is, of the prophets themselves."

Dr. Adam Clarke: "'Of any private interpretation-—-proceeds from the prophet's own knowledge or invention, or was the offspring of calculation or conjecture. Far from inventing the subject of their own predictions, the ancient prophets did not even know the meaning of what they themselves wrote."

Archbishop Whately: "Prophecy is not to be its own interpreter, that is, is not to have its full sense made out (like that of any other kind of composition) by the study of the very words of each prophecy itself, but it is to be interpreted by the event that fulfils it."

Dr. Edward Robinson: '"No prophecy of scripture cometh of private interpretation,' i.e. is not an interpretation of the will of God by the prophets themselves."

Dr. Samuel Davidson: "No prophecy admits of a solution proper to its utterer."

Dr. Charles Hodge: "What a prophet said was not human, but divine. It was not the prophet's own interpretation of the mind and will of God. He spoke as the organ of the Holy Ghost."

Alford, Tholuck, De Wette, and Huther: '"Prophecy springs not out of human interpretation,' i.e. is not a prognostication made by a man knowing what he means when he utters it."

Upon any reasonable interpretation, the passage no more precludes explanations of prophecy given in private than those made in public.

(PROPHECY  IS  NOT  FROM  THE  IMAGINATION  OF  THE  HUMAN  MIND.  MUCH  CAN  BE  SEEN  ON  THAT,  ON  YOUTUBE  TODAY.  PROPHECY  IS  FROM  GOD,  AND  SO  IF  WRITTEN  IN  HIS  WORD,  MUST  BE  INTERPRETED  BY  HIS  WORD;  THE  BIBLE  INTERPRETS  THE  BIBLE  -  Keith HNunt)

Prophecy sure

And if thou say in thy heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

Deuteronomy 18:21-22

We have also a more sure word of prophecy: whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place.

2 Peter 1:19

Not always fulfilled

And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.... And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

Jonah 3:4-5,10

A passage previously cited (Jeremiah 18:7-10)164 has a bearing upon this point. That passage, however, refers to promises and threatenings, which are, of course, conditional. The text from Deuteronomy seems, on the contrary, to refer to absolute predictions, which are in no way contingent upon human conduct.

Peter terms prophecy "more sure" than the mere "voice" which the apostles heard in the mount, as "being of wider and larger reference, and as presenting a broader basis for the Christian's trust, and not only one fact, however important."

As to the threat uttered by Jonah, it turned upon a condition, either expressed or implied. As Henderson observes, "However absolute the right of God to deal with mankind agreeably to his own good pleasure, his conduct is always in strict accordance with the manner in which they behave toward him. Neither his promises nor his threatenings are unconditional."

Divine promise absolute

In that same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.

Genesis 15:18

And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.

Genesis 17:7

It was conditional

And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them. Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured.

Deuteronomy 31:16-17

……

164 See pp. 64-65, of present work.

……

When ye have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them; then shall the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given unto you.

Joshua 23:16

The covenant with Abraham has a twofold fulfilment: a partial one to his literal posterity—partial, on account of their nonfulfillment of the conditions; also, a grand and glorious fulfillment to Abraham's spiritual seed, in bestowing upon them the heavenly Canaan.155 The "covenant," though not fulfilled in the primary, will be so in the secondary and higher sense.

Judah to reign till Messiah

The  sceptre  shall  not  depart  from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

Genesis 49:10

Israel's first king a Benjamite

And afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin.

Acts 13:21

First. It is very far from being certain that the term "Shiloh" has any reference to the Messiah. Many critics interpret it as "the Ephraimite city where the tabernacle was erected, after the Israelites had entered the promised land." Here, during the judges' rule, the sanctuary remained, God revealed himself, the yearly feasts were kept, and the pious assembled as at their religious center. On this hypothesis, the sense is, "Till he, or one, come to Shiloh." That is, Judah should be the leader of the tribes during their march through the wilderness, till they arrived at Shiloh, the center of the promised inheritance. In this view concur Bleek, Bunsen, Davidson, Delitzsch, Eichhorn, Ewald, Fuerst, Hitzig, Kalisch, Lipmann, Luzzatto, Palfrey, Rodiger, Teller, and Tuch, with others.166 Another ancient interpretation is: "Judah shall possess the sceptre till he comes to whom it belongs." So, in substance, the Septuagint (according to one reading), Aquila, Symmachus, the Peshito, Onkelos, one Arabic, and most of the ancient versions, the Jerusalem Targum, Jahn, Von Bohlen, De Wette. Krummacher, etc.

……

165 Compare Galatians 3:29; 4:28; Hebrews 11:16, 39-40.

166 See Article "Shiloh," in Smith's Bib. Diet., Vol. iv. pp. 2997-2999.

……

Others render the word variously, "Rest-bringer," "Tranquilizer," "Rest," "Peace," "Peacemaker," "Prince of Peace." To this class may be referred Bush, Deutsch, Gesenius finally, Hengstenberg, Hofmann, Keil, Knobel, Kurtz, Lange, Luther, Rosenmuller, Schroder, Vater, and the Grand Rabbi Wogue. These all, with slight differences, agree in the above interpretation of the term Shiloh."

It is to be added that nearly all the ancient Jewish commentators, with the early Christian writers, and several modern critics, agree in referring the term to the Messiah.

Secondly. Admitting the Messianic reference, the passage still furnishes little difficulty. "Judah," says Keil, "was, to bear the sceptre with victorious, Bon-like courage, until, in the future Shiloh, the obedience of the nations came to him, and his rule over the tribes was widened into the peaceful government of the world." In the camp and on the march, Judah took the first place among the tribes.167 After the death of Joshua, Judah by divine direction opened the war upon the Canaanites;168 and the first judge, Othniel, came of that tribe.169 Then, in David and Solomon, the same tribe gained undisputed pre-eminence. In further proof, it may be added that, later, this tribe gave the name "Jews" to the whole people; "Jehudim" from "Jehudah," Judah.170 Moreover, our Lord himself-—the Shiloh, upon this interpretation-—-came as a man of the tribe of Judah.171 So that unto Jesus, and in him as Shiloh, that tribe maintained an easy preeminence.

Any one of the foregoing interpretations obviates the alleged discrepancy.

(WHEN  THE  THRONE  OF  DAVID  WAS  GIVEN  TO  DAVID,  JUDAH  WOULD  CONTINUE  THE  DESCENT  OF  THE  THRONE  UNTIL  THE  MESSIAH,  WHOSE  TRUE  RIGHT  IT  WAS,  WOULD  COME  TO  CLAIM  IT.  ALL  STILL  BEING  FULFILLED  AS  THE  THRONE  OF  DAVID  WAS  MOVED  TO  BRITAIN.  THE  BRITISH  THRONE  IS  INDEED  THE  THRONE  OF  DAVID,  AS  PROVED  ON  THIS  WEBSITE  -  Keith Hunt)

Quotations

Original passages

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God. Isaiah 61:1-2

Quoted incorrectly

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

Luke 4:18-19

……

167 Numbers 2:2-3; 7:12; 10:14.

168 Judges 1:1-19.

165 Joshua 15:13; Judges 3:9.

170 Compare Turner's Companion to the Book of Genesis, pp. 371-388. Also, Speaker's (or
Bible) Commentary, i. 282, 233 (English edition).

171 Hebrews 7:14.

……

Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me.

Malachi 3:1

Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.

Mark 1:2

It will be seen that, in both these cases, the original sense is substantially preserved in the citation. We have elsewhere172 remarked upon the relation which the inspired authors sustain to one another; and especially, with reference to their use of similar phraseology. A thorough investigation of the subject will show conclusively that the sacred writers, in quoting from one another, quote according to the sense, and not according to the letter. They seldom, almost never, quote verbatim.

Original passage

Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more  grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

Isaiah 9:1-2

Condensed

That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; the people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.

Matthew 4:14-16

Here is no contradiction, but a condensation. The fifteenth verse of Matthew is not so much a quotation, as an allusion, designed to arrest the attention of the reader, and prepare the way for the quotation proper.

The following is an example of substantial agreement amid slight circumstantial variations.

Forms of statement

And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at thy house with my disciples.

Matthew 26:18 

And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall meet yon a man bearing a pitcher of water: follow him. And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guest-chamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?

Mark 14:13-14

Expanded.

And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the passover, that we may eat …. Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you, bearing a pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he entereth in. And ye shall say unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto thee, Where is the guest-chamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?

Luke 22:8,10-11

……

172 See pp. 6-7, of present work.

……

A case of this kind can, we think, furnish difficulty to the advocates of verbal inspiration only.

Original passage

Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.

Psalm 40:6

Inexact version

Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.

Hebrews 10:5-6

The difficulty, in this case, is that the apostle follows the Septuagint, "A body hast thou prepared me," instead of the Hebrew, "Mine ears hast thou opened."

We may first ask: Why did the Septuagint translators commit such an error in rendering the Hebrew into Greek? Usher, Semler, Ernesti, Michaelis, Bleek, and Lunemann offer the very plausible suggestion that the translators misread the Hebrew, and show how this might readily take place in this particular instance.173 Cappell, Carpzov, Wolf, Ebrard, Tholuck, and Delitzsch think that the translators deliberately chose this phraseology by which to render the Hebrew, as being more intelligible to the reader.

The second question is: Why did the apostle employ this loose rendering, instead of a literal one? In reply, it may be shown that the fundamental idea is retained, even in the inexact phraseology. The expression, "Mine ears hast thou opened," is, according to Hengstenberg,174 another way of saying, "Thou hast made me hearing, obedient"; while the corresponding words, "A body hast thou prepared me," are equivalent to, "Thou hast fitted me for willing service in the execution of thy designs." We thus see that in both cases the fundamental idea, the obedience of the Messiah, is preserved. Therefore, in this deeper view, there is no dissonance between these passages. Such being the case, Paul was at liberty

……

173 See Alford, on Hebrews 10:5.

174 Com. on Psalm 40:6.

……

to employ the paraphrastic rendering; especially since this seemed more appropriate to his purpose,175 as setting forth more fitly than did the original utterance the incarnation of the Lord Jesus and his obedience unto death.176

(THE  READER  SHOULD  STUDY  THE  STUDY  ON  MY  WEBSITE  CALLED  "HOW  PAUL  USED  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT"  AND  IT  IS  VERY  REVEALING  AND  MAYBE  A  SHOCK  TO  SOME,  BUT  IT  GIVES  GREAT  INSIGHT  INTO  THE  USE  OF  SCRIPTURE  -  Keith Hunt)

Original

And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price: and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prized at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord. Zechariah 11:12-13

Wrongly referred

Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value; and gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me.

Matthew 27:9-10

Here is obviously a mistake, either made by Matthew or by subsequent transcribers. The prophecy was uttered by Zechariah, not Jeremiah.

Alford thinks that Matthew quoted from memory and unprecisely. Barnes suggests two explanations. According to the Jewish writers, Jeremiah was reckoned the first of the prophets, and was placed first in the book of the prophets; thus, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, etc. Matthew, in quoting this book, may have quoted it under the name which stood first in it; that is, instead of saying, "by the Prophets," he may have said, "by Jeremy the prophet," since he headed the list.

Or, the difficulty may have arisen from abridgment of the names. In the Greek, Jeremiah, instead of being written in full, might stand thus, "Iriou"; Zechariah thus, "Zriou." By the mere change of Z into I, the mistake would be made. The Syriac Peshito and several mss. have simply, "by the prophet." In Henderson's 177 opinion, the Greek text of the above passage has been corrupted.

(SIMPLE  ANSWER  IS  THAT  JEREMIAH  SPOKE  IT.  WHAT  JEREMIAH  ONCE  SAID  HAD  BEEN  HANDED  DOWN;  THAT  IS  PROBABLY  THE  TRUTH  OF  IT,  FOR  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  WAS  COPIED  IN  VERY  STRICT  WAYS,  MINUTELY  STRICT  WAYS,  AS  SHOWN  UNDER  "HOW  WE  GOT  THE  BIBLE"  -  THE  COPY  OF  ISAIAH  FROM  THE  "DEAD  SEA  SCROLLS"  WRITTEN  AT  THE  TIME  OF  CHRIST,  IS  PRACTICALLY  WORD  FOR  WORD  AS  WE  HAVE  TODAY  IN  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH  -  Keith Hunt)

Forms of report

This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Matthew 3:17

Why are ye fearful,  O ye  of little faith?

Matthew 8:26

Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?

Mark 4:40

Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.

Matthew 9:2

Different

Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Mark 1:11

Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.

Luke 3:22

Where is your faith?

Luke 8:25

Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.

Mark 2:5

Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.

Luke 5:20

……

175 Warington on Inspiration, p. 95.

176 See Bib. Sacra, Vol. xxx. p. 309.

177 Minor Prophets, pp. 418-419.

……

This is Jesus the King of the Jews. 

Matthew 27:37

The King of the Jews.

Mark 15:26

This is the King of the Jews.

Luke 23:38

Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews.

John 19:19

Taking these several cases into consideration, it is beyond question that in each the fundamental idea is preserved under all the various forms. And this, we think, is all, and precisely what, the sacred writers intended. One might, indeed, say of the last instance that John's report includes the other three; so that, if he is correct, the others of course are so. Or, that, since the superscription was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, Matthew gives a translation of the Hebrew; Mark, a condensed one of the Latin; Luke follows Mark, adding, "This is"; while John gives a summary of the whole. But we see no necessity for such explanations. It is altogether improbable that three inscriptions, in three different languages, should correspond word for word.

The following cases furnish a slightly augmented difficulty.

Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat.

Matthew 10:9-10

And commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse: but be shod with sandals; and not put on two coats.

Mark 6:8-9

Take nothing for your journey, neither staves nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece.

Luke 9:3

In this case the trivial differences do not affect the substantial agreement. When we observe that Matthew uses the term "provide,"178 it is clear that his meaning is: "Do not procure any in addition to what you now have. Go, just as you are."

As to the fact that Matthew forbids "shoes" to be procured, while Mark allows "sandals" to be worn, it may be remarked that "shoes," as the original implies, may have been of a kind such as to cover the whole foot, while the "sandal" was merely a sole of wood or hide, covering the bottom of the foot and bound on with thongs.179 Thus the supposed discrepancy utterly falls away.

(COULD  BE  AS  NO  TWO  COATS,  FOOTWEAR  WAS  ALSO  NOT  TO  BE  "PLURAL"  -  TWO  SETS  OF  FOOTWEAR.  THEY  WERE  TO  HAVE  FAITH  THAT  IMPORTANT  ITEMS  LIKE  A  COAT [FOR  COLD  WEATHER]  AND  FOOTWEAR  [WALKING  ALL  THE  TIME, NO HORSES, BIKES,  BUSES,  CARS,  OR  TRAINS  AND  PLANES]   FOR  WALKING  WOULD  BE  ALWAYS  SUPPLIED,  AS  A  WORKMAN  IS  WORTHY  OF  HIS  HIRE;  PEOPLE  WOULD  SEE  THEY  HAD  THE  BASIC  NEEDS  OF  LIFE  TO  DO  THE  GOSPEL  WORK -  Keith Hunt)

……

178 Greek Kxaopm, to get for oneself, to acquire, to procure, by purchase or otherwise. Robinson, Lexicon to New Testament.

175 So Robinson's New Testament Lexicon.

……

Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say aught unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them.

Matthew 21:2-3

Go your way into the village over against you: and as soon as ye be entered into it, ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat; loose him, and bring him. And if any man say unto you, Why do ye this? say ye that the Lord hath need of him; and straightway he will send him hither.

Mark 11:2-3

Go ye into the village over against you; in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him and bring him hither. And if any man ask you, Why do ye loose him, thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him.

Luke 19:30-31

This is simply an example of three independent veracious witnesses, each telling his story in his own way. And we cannot feel the least respect for that infinitessimal criticism which cavils and demurs at a case of this kind.

A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas.

Matthew 16:4

Why doth this generation seek after a sign? verily, I say unto you, There shall no sign be given to this generation.

Mark 8:12

May not Mark mean, there shall no future sign be given? The "sign of the prophet Jonas" was taken from the records of the past. At all events, that kind of sign sought for by the Jews was peremptorily refused.

Other interesting examples of variant quotations are the following:

Till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.

Matthew 16:28

Till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.

Mark 9:1

Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever.

Matthew 21:19

For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.

Matthew 22:30

For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels which are in heaven.

Mark 12:25

Till they see the kingdom of God.

Luke 9:27

No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever.

Mark 11:14

But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.

Luke 20:35-36

But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Matthew 22:31-32

And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.

Mark 12:26-27

But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Show me the tribute money.

Matthew 22:18-19

But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? bring me a penny, that I may see it.

Mark 12:15

Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said. 

Matthew 26:64

When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains.

Matthew 24:15,16

Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him. 

Luke 20:37-38

But he perceived their craftiness, and said unto them, Why tempt ye me? Show me a penny.

Luke 20:23-24

And Jesus said, I am.

Mark 14:62

But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains.

Mark 13:14

And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains.

Luke 21:20-21

Another striking case is that relative to the instituting of the Lord's Super. The passages are too long to be quoted here, but may be found in Matthew 26:21-29, Mark 14:18-24, Luke 22:14-20, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. A no less famous instance is that of Peter's denials of Christ, which is discussed else-where. 180

When we take into consideration the fact that inspiration has reference primarily to ideas rather than to words; and that, in each of the above cases

……

180  See under Historical Discrepancies—Persons.

……

respectively, the fundamental idea is, notwithstanding the variations of phraseology, carefully and distinctly preserved, these and similar instances furnish no real difficulty whatever.181. In view of these and similar cases, certain eminent critics have felt warranted in deducing two inferences:

1. That the sacred writers, in their citations from one another, provided the fundamental idea were retained, were suffered to expand, abridge, or paraphrase the original language, and adapt it to the object which they respectively contemplated. As is observed by Prof. Barrows,182 "It is manifest that the writers of the New Testament are not anxious about the verbal accuracy of the words cited. The spirit and scope of a passage, which constitute its true life and meaning, are what they have in view, not the exact rendering of the words from the Hebrew into the Greek."

2. That these writers, while divinely guarded against any error in communicating religious truth, and against any material error in narrating matters of fact, were yet not preserved from trivial errors, defects of memory, and the like,
which occasionally appear in their writings. In other words, they were neither rendered omniscient, nor infallible in all respects, but were unerringly guided in the communication of religious truth.

Archbishop Whately, 183 speaking of certain cases in the New Testament, says, "We may plainly perceive that, in point of fact, the sacred writers were not supernaturally guarded against trifling inaccuracies in the detail of unimportant circumstances." Again, he speaks of those "trifling inaccuracies as to an insignificant circumstance which occur in the gospel history, and which it was not thought needful to guard against by a special inspiration." Nearly the same view is taken by Mr. Warington 184 who, however, concedes much more than is necessary.

Dean Alford 185 says, "There are certain minor points of accuracy or inaccuracy of which human research suffices to inform men, and on which, from want of that research, it is often the practice to speak vaguely and inexactly. Such are sometimes the conventionally received distances from place to place; such are the common accounts of phenomena in natural history, etc. Now, in matters of this kind, the evangelists and apostles were not supernaturally informed, but left, in common with others, to the guidance of their natural faculties. The same

……

181  Compare Journal of Sacred Literature (April, 1854), pp. 71-110.

182  Bibliotheca Sacra, Vol. xxx. p. 306.

183  Future State, appendix to Lecture xi.

184  On Inspiration, pp. 72-75 and 238-239.

185  Prolegomena to Gospels, chap, i., sect, vi., par 14-15.

……

may be said of citations and dates from history. In the last apology of Stephen, which he spoke being full of the Holy Ghost, and with divine influence beaming from his countenance, we have at least two demonstrable historical inaccuracies. And the occurrence of similar ones in the Gospels does not in anyway affect the inspiration or the veracity of the evangelists."

The above theory of inspiration seems very well set forth in the following citation from the late Mr. Parry:186 "Everything which the apostles have written or taught concerning Christianity—everything which teaches a religious sentiment or duty-—-must be considered as divinely true, as the mind and will of God, recorded under the direction and guidance of his Spirit. But there is no need to ask whether everything contained in their writings was immediately suggested by the Spirit or not; whether Luke was inspired to say that the ship in which he sailed with Paul was wrecked on the island of Melita, or whether Paul was under the guidance of the Spirit in directing Timothy to bring him the cloak which he had left at Troas; for these things were not of a religous nature, and no inspiration was necessary concerning them." We will simply add that the view of inspiration exhibited in the foregoing extracts, while it very well meets certain exigencies of the case, seems, nevertheless, peculiarly liable to be misunderstood and abused. There is ever far greater danger to be apprehended from a lax than from a strict theory of inspiration.

(AGAIN  THE  READER  NEEDS  TO  STUDY  "HOW  PAUL  USED  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT"  ON  THIS WEBSITE,  AND  COME  TO  UNDERSTAND  THAT  MOVING  INSPIRATION  BY  THE  SPIRIT  OF  GOD,  ALLOWS  FOR  MOVEMENT  IN  WRITING  WHEN  THE  MAIN  SENSE  AND  TEACHING  IS  THE  IMPORTANT  THING,  NOT  THE  PHYSICAL  WORDS  IN  "MUST  BE  EXACTLY  THE  SAME."  MOVING  FROM  ONE  LANGUAGE  TO  ANOTHER  MUST  OFTEN   BE  DONE  WITH  THE  "SENSE"  AND  NOT  THE  PHYSICAL  FORMATION  OF  WORDS.  SOME  LANGUAGES  HAVE  THE  LITERAL  WORDS  BACKWARDS  TO  THE  ENGLISH  WORDS  OF  SAYING  THE  BASIC  SAME  THING.  GOD  IS  NOT  BOUND  BY  SAY  JUST  THE  "OXFORD  DICTIONARY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE."  GOD  IS  NOT  BOUND  BY  REPEATING  THE  SAME  OUTLINED  THRUTH,  FROM  ONE  MAN  TO  ANOTHER  MAN,  OR  ONE  AGE  TO  ANOTHER  AGE,  IN  EXACTLY  THE  SAME  LITERAL  WORDS;  THE  TRUTH  AND  MEANING  IS  THE  MOST  IMPORTANT  THING  TO  HAND  DOWN.  AND  THE  FULL  CIRCUMSTANCES  DOES  NOT  HAVE  TO  BE  GIVEN  BY  ALL  PERSONS.  EXAMPLE,  THE  MOTHER  OF  THE  DONKEY  JESUS  RODE  UPON,  DOES  NOT  HAVE  TO  BE  MENTIONED  BY  EVERYONE  RELATING  THE  STORY.  NOT  ALL  JOURNALISTS  GIVE  ALL  DETAILS  ON  REPORTING  AN  INCIDENT;  THE  BASIC  TRUTH  IS  GIVEN,  WHILE  DIFFERENT  SIDE  DETAILS  ARE  GIVEN,  SOME  OF  THIS…  BY  SOME,  SOME  OF  THE  OTHER…  BY  OTHERS  ETC.  Keith Hunt)

……….

TO  BE  CONTINUED

ALLEGED  Discrepancies of the BIBLE #6

MAN, in Relation to the Present—Creation

Like God by creation.

So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God created he him.

Genesis 1:27

In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him.

Genesis 5:1

This likeness acquired. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall he opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. . .. And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.

Genesis 3:5,22

A certain sceptical critic, referring to these two classes of texts, remarks: "In the first, man is made in the image of God; in the second, likeness to the Deity comes to him by subsequently knowing good and evil." The first texts,

Quoted in Journal of Sacred Literature (April, 1854), pp. 104-105.

however, refer to man's spiritual constitution; the second, to his acquired knowledge, or his power to discriminate between good and evil. Man's spirit is made "in the image" of God, who is a Spirit; man's knowledge of good and evil, in virtue of which he is, in a sense, "like God," was acquired.

Made in image of God.

In the image of God made he man.

Genesis 9:6

Created male and female.

Male and female created he them.

Genesis 5:2

The first text contemplates the soul, the immaterial part; the second refers to the material, physical organism of human beings. Maimonides says: "Made in the image of God in respect to the soul and understanding; created male and female in respect to corporeal composition."

Made like God.

And God said, Let us make man in our

image, after our likeness.

Genesis 1:26

None like Him.

To whom then will ye liken me, or shall

I be equal? saith the Holy One.

Isaiah 40:25

The first text conveys the idea of resemblance; the second of equality. We may resemble God in certain respects without being equal to him.

Sinfulness

No man without sin.

There is no man that sinneth not.

1 Kings 8:46

The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all-together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Psalm 14:2-3

Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?

Proverbs 20:9

For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.

Ecclesiastes 7:20

Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is God.

Mark 10:18

There is none righteous, no, not one. . . . For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

Romans 3:10,23

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in as.

1 John 1:8

Some are sinless.

Noah was a just man and perfect in his

generations,  and Noah walked with

God.

Genesis 6:9

Job... was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.

Job 1:1

Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. Psalm 24:3, 4

Preserve my soul; for lam holy.

Psalm 86:2

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good.

Luke 6:45

These things write I unto you, that ye sin not.

1 John 2:1

Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. . . . Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

1John3:6,9

The first series of passages contemplates men in their unregenerate state. These texts teach the undeniable truth that no mere human being has ever reached the age of accountability without violating the moral law, without sinning. They are a strong, emphatic statement of the fact that, as certainly as human beings arrive at years of discretion, so certainly do they become sinners. Since "all have sinned," therefore, "if we say that we have no sin"—that we have kept ourselves from sin, and hence do not need pardon—"we deceive ourselves."

Mark 10:18 simply asserts that no being is absolutely good—good per se—except God. His is absolute, underived goodness; men are "good" not in the sense in which he is good, but relatively and by derivation.

The citations of the second series, except those from 1 John 3, refer to men possessing the relative goodness just mentioned. The texts excepted are interpreted in the following manner: "Whosoever sinneth." Doddridge says, "Who habitually and avowedly sinneth." "Doth not commit sin." According to Mr. Barnes, the interpretation should be: "Is not willfully and deliberately a sinner." He may err, and be "overtaken in a fault," but the misdeed is not intentional. "He cannot sin" that is, it is incompatible with his views, feelings, and purposes. We have here a fresh illustration of that moral impossibility which has been already mentioned more than once.

Andrew Fuller:187 "It appears that the word 'sin' in these passages, is of different significations. In the former, it is to be taken properly for any transgression of the law of God. If any man say, in this sense, he has no sin, he only proves himself to be deceived, and that he has yet to learn what is true religion. But in the latter, it seems, from the context, that the term is intended to denote the sin of apostasy. If we were to substitute the term 'apostasy' for 'sin' from the sixth to the tenth verse, the meaning would be clear."

187 Works, i. 682.

Dr. Davidson 188 calls attention to the form of expression in the original, 1 John 3:9, and observes: "There is an emphasis in the verb 'poi.' It denotes the habitual working of sin."

Dusterdieck 189 thinks that the last citations from 1 John present the ideal standard which continually, so to speak, floats above the actual life of believers as their rule and aim, and that this norm finds in such actual life only a relative fulfilment, yet that, even in the actual life of all that are born of God, there is something which in full verity answers to the ideal words, "They cannot sin." That is, they sin not, and cannot sin, just in proportion as the new, divine life, unconditionally opposed to all sin, and manifesting itself in godlike righteousness, is present and abides in them.

In a word, the texts just mentioned are descriptions of the ideal Christian.

(THE  AMPLIFIED  BIBLE  BRINGS  OUT  THE  GREEK:  IN  JOHN  THE  CHRISTIAN  DOES  NOT  PRACTICE  SIN;  DOES  NOT  DELIBERATELY  LEAD  A  LIFE  OF  SIN;  ALL  EXPLAINED  FULLY  AS  I  GO  THROUGH  THE  LETTERS  OF  JOHN  IN  MY  "NEW  TESTAMENT  BIBLE  STORY"  ON  THIS  WEBSITE  -  Keith Hunt)

Made upright.

God hath made man upright - Ecclesicclesiastes 7:29

Made sinful.

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in

sin did my mother conceive me.

Psalm 51:5

The latter text is simply an Oriental hyperbolical way of saying that he had begun to sin at the earliest practicable period. This language is no more to be pressed literally than is Job's 190 declaration that he had guided the widow "from his mother's womb." That is, as Delitzsch says, "from earliest youth, so far back as he can remember, he was wont to behave like a father to the orphan and like a child to the widow." To take the language, in either case, in a rigidly literal sense, is a gross absurdity.

(THE  FIRST  TEXT  -  GOD  HAS  DESIGNED  HIS  PLAN  OF  SALVATION  THAT  CAN  MAKE  MAN  UPRIGHT  -  Keith Hunt

THE  LATTER  TEXT  -  SIN  WAS  ALL  AROUND  IN  THE  WORLD,  AND  WE  ARE  BORN  WITH  A  NATURE  THAT  CAN  SIN;  AS  WE  HAVE  SEEN,  ALL  EVENTUALLY  DO  SIN  -  Keith Hunt)

Born sinful.

For vain man would be wise, though

man be born like a wild ass's colt.

Job 11:12

Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.

Job 14:4

What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

Job 15:14

The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.

Psalm 58:3

Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

Proverbs 22:15

That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

John 3:6

Infants are sinless.

Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither.

Deuteronomy 1:39

Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorest shall be forsaken of both her kings.

Isaiah 7:15-16

Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 18:3-4

Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.

Luke 18:16-17

For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil.

Romans 9:11

¹⁸⁸ Sacred Hermeneutics, p. 579.

¹⁸⁹ Quoted by Alford.

¹⁹⁰ Chap. 31:18.

As to the three quotations from Job, we observe, first, that they are couched in poetical and figurative language. Second, as we have remarked elsewhere, there is no proof that Job and his friends were inspired as religious teachers, as were the prophets and apostles. That the author of the book was "moved by the Holy Spirit" to record its contents is beyond doubt; but that we are to take the words of Satan, of Job's wife, of the patriarch himself, and of his friends, as "proof-texts" upon which to build stupendous structures of theology, we cannot for a moment admit. Says Prof. Stuart,191 "Just as if these angry disputants, who contradict each other, and most of whom God himself has declared to be in the wrong (Job 42:7-9), were inspired when they disputed."

Psalm 58:3, like 51:5 considered above, is a poetical hyperbole. The absurdity of a literal interpretation is obvious from the fact that the wicked are represented as "speaking lies," as soon at they are born. Literalistic exegesis would make them rather precocious. The meaning plainly is that they begin very early, as soon as possible, to speak lies and to go astray.

The "foolishness" of Proverbs 22 can hardly be sin, for sin cannot be removed by corporal punishment. A higher power than the "rod" is requisite to the expulsion of sin, and the cleansing of the soul.

(IT  IS  THE  SILLY  AND  STUPID  MISTAKES  CHILDREN  CAN  MAKE  IN  THIS  LIFE  THEY  LIVE,  WHICH  OFTEN  NEEDS  STRONG  CORRECTION  TO  GUIDE  THEM  AWAY  FROM  -  Keith Hunt)

As to John 3:6, there are two interpretations. 1. That given by Meyer: The flesh is the material nature of man, determined ethically by the sinful impulses of which it is the seat. Whatever is born from this sensuous and sinfully determined human nature is a being of the same sensuous, sinfully constituted nature

¹⁹¹ History of Old Testament, Canon, p. 144 (Revised edition, p. 133).

without the spiritual and ethical life which first arises through the action of the Divine Spirit. 2. The language may have had a special application. Nicodemus had just suggested the impossibility of a second natural birth. Christ may have meant simply, "even were it possible, you would gain nothing by it: you would still be what you now are." That is, the language may have been designed to teach, not that infants are actually born sinful, but that a second physical birth, were it possible, would fail to introduce a man into the "kingdom of God."

At all events, the theory that children are born with certain perverted tendencies or natural proclivities to sin, which, though not sinful per se, do nevertheless certainly lead the individual into sin as soon as he is capable of moral action, will satisfy the demands of a reasonable exegesis.

Matthew 18:3 asserts that we must "become as little children"—docile, loving, guileless—in order to enter in to "the kingdom of heaven."

Luke 18:15 takes up the same thought in respect to infants,192 and declares that "of such is the kingdom of heaven"; that is, it is composed of little children, and of those persons who possess the childlike character and spirit. It would appear, therefore, that these two passages are utterly incompatible with the theory that children are born into the world laden with guilt, permeated with and steeped in the virus of sin.

Romans 9:11 brings to view certain children which, though alive,193 had "done neither good nor evil." Now, since sin is the "transgression of the law," these children, having violated no law, could not possibly be sinners. Nor do we discover anything in the accident of birth which could fix the stain of sin upon their souls. A fair inference, then, is that, since they were not sinners before birth, they did not become such at birth, nor until they wilfully violated, to some extent, the law of God. Nor does it appear that the case of these children was, in respect to this exemption, an exceptional one. Hence the theory that infants come into the world actually sinful or guilty would not seem to be supported either by reason or by the testimony of Scripture.

(DEUT. 1:39  SHOWS  CHILDREN  MUST  GET  TO  A  CERTAIN  AGE  BEFORE  THEY  CAN  KNOW  RIGHT  FROM  WRONG  WITHIN  THE  WILL  AND  LAW  OF  GOD - Keith Hunt)

Children of wrath naturally.

And were by nature the children of

wrath, even as others.

Ephesians 2:3

Keep the law by nature. 

For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: which show the work of the law written in their hearts.

Romans 2:14-15

¹⁹² The original word here is different, and, as Alford says, "points out more distinctly the
tender age of the children."

¹⁹³ See Genesis 25:22-23.

Andrew Fuller: The phrase "by nature" in the latter refers to the rule of action; but in the former to the cause of it.

Dr. Hodge: "'By nature' in virtue of their internal constitution, not by external instruction." Riickert: "We were born children of wrath; i.e. such as we were from our birth, we were exposed to the divine wrath, is the true sense of these words."

Suicer 194 renders the word "phusis," in Ephesians 2:3, "truly, incontestably" The Syriac Peshito reads: "And were altogether the children of wrath." Dr. Adam Clarke and Bishop Ellicott doubt whether there is in this text any direct assertion of the doctrine of original sin.

We take the sense to be, "And were, in our unregenerate condition, the children of wrath." In this interpretation, Mr. Barnes concurs. Or, a different explanation may be given. The term "nature" may here denote our natural proclivities and tendencies to sin; the idea being that, in consequence of the development of these, we were the children of wrath.

Upon any reasonable explanation, the words "were by nature the children of wrath" do not imply that we were born sinning or sinful. Man is "by nature" a talking being, yet he was not necessarily born talking We are "by nature" offspring-loving beings, yet it by no means follows that we were born in the actual exercise of this "natural affection." So the fact that we are sinners "by nature" does not necessitate that we were sinners before, or even at birth, but merely that we are such at the result of our natural proclivities to evil.

(YES  BORN  WITH  A  NATURE  THAT  CAN  SIN;  BUT  TIME  IS  NEEDED  FOR  THAT  NATURE  TO  MANIFEST  ITSELF  -  HENCE  THE  TRUTH  OF  DEUT. 1:39.  IT  IS  ALSO  OUR  NATURE  TO  BE  ABLE  TO  FIGURE  OUT  FOR  OURSELVES  SOME  OF  THE  LAW  OF  GOD, I.E. SOCIETIES  CAN  FIGURE  FOR  THEMSELVES  IT  CANNOT  ALLOW  PEOPLE  TO  WILLFULLY  KILL  OTHER  PEOPLE,  OR  ROB  A  BANK,  OR  SEXUALLY  ABUSE  CHILDREN,  OR  BEATUP  AND  STEAL  FROM  AN  OLD  LADY  -  Keith Hun)

All made sinners by Adam. 

Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and to death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. .. . Therefore, as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation.

Romans 5:12,18

Made righteous by Christ 

Even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Romans 5:18-19

There are two interpretations of the last two texts. (1) That the "free gift" is adapted to all men, and has a tendency to restore them to the divine favor. Barnes: "'Came upon all men—was with reference to all men; had a bearing upon all men; was originally adapted to the race." John Taylor: "The drift of the apostle's conclusion is to show that the Gift, in its utmost extent, is free to all mankind."

¹⁹⁴ Thesaurus, Vol. ii., col. 1475. Similarly Grotius and several early writers. Compare the German "naturlich."

Calvin: The apostle makes the grace "common to all, because it is offered to all, not because it is in fact applied to all."

(2) That the words "all" and "many," in the eighteenth and nineteenth verses, are each used in two senses, a wider and a narrower. Dr. Hodge thinks that, in the first clause of each verse, "all" means all who are connected with Adam; in the second clause, all who are connected with Christ. Alford says that both classes of men meet in the word "many." A common term of quantity is found for both; the one extending to its largest numerical interpretation; the other restricted to its smallest. In either view, there is no discrepancy.

JUDGMENT  AND  SIN  COMES  TO  ALL  BECAUSE  EVENTUALLY  ALL  DO  SIN  IF  LIVING  BEYOND  THE  AGE  OF  INNOCENCE [DEUT. 1:39]; AND  SIN  ENTERED  THE  WORLD  OF  HUMANS  THROUGH  ADAM.

(IT  WAS  ALSO  THROUGH  ONE  MAN  -  CHRIST  JESUS  -  THAT  THE  WAY  TO  REDEMPTION  AND  SALVATION  CAN  BE  [IF  TAKEN]  POSSIBLE  FOR  ALL.  THE  WORD  "MANY"  MUST  BE  TAKEN  WITHIN  THE  CONTEXT  OF  OTHER  VERSES.  MAN  AND  SIN,  THE  MANY  IS  "ALL"  -  EVERYONE  LIVING  BEYOND  THE  AGE  OF  INNOCENCE  DO  "ALL"  SIN.  THE  MANY  UNTO  JUSTIFICATION  BY  THE  ONE  MAN  CHRIST,  IS  THOUGH  OFFERED  FREELY  TO  ALL  EVENTUALLY  IN  GOD'S  PLAN  OF  SALVATION,  IT  IS  ONLY  THE  "MANY"  OF  THE  ALL,  THOSE  WHO  WILL  ACCEPT  CHRIST  AS  PERSONAL  SAVIOR,  WILL  BE  JUSTIFIED  AND  SAVED  UNTO  SALVATION.  THE  CONTEXT  OF  WORDS  USED  MUST  BE  UNDERSTOOD  WITHIN  THE  CONTEXT  OF  THE  SUBJECT;  IN  THIS  CASE  THE  SUBJECT  BEING  SIN  AND  JUSTIFICATION  -  Keith Hunt)

Repentance

Mans own act.

Repent ye, and believe the gospel.

Mark 1:15

Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

Luke 13:5

Now commandeth all men every where to repent.

Acts 17:30

God's gift.

To give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.

Acts 5:31

Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.

Acts 11:18

If God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.

2 Timothy 2:25

The word "repentance" is used in two senses. In the first series, it denotes the act of repenting; in the second, the opportunity, motives, and helps of that act. Hackett: " 'To give repentance'  i.e. the grace or disposition to exercise it." De Wette: "The opportunity to repent, or the provision of mercy which renders repentance available to the sinner."

(YES  GOD  GIVES  THE  OPPORTUNITY  TO  MANKIND  TO  REPENT;  EACH  PERSON  MUST  THEN  MAKE  THE  FREE  WILL  TO  DECIDE  IF  THEY  WILL  REPENT;  GOD  WOULD  LIKE,  WISH,  DESIRE,  THEM  TO  REPENT;  BUT  THE  PERSON  HAS  THE  FREE  CHOICE  TO  DECIDE.  MANY  OTHER  VERSES  SHOW  MANKIND  IS  SPIRITUALLY  BLINDED,  UNTIL  GOD  REMOVES  THAT  BLINDNESS,  HENCE  THE  OPPORTUNITY  TO  REPENT;  BUT  GOD  DOES  NOT  FORCE  ANYONE,  THEY  MUST  FREELY  CHOOSE  TO  REPENT  -  Keith Hunt)

Regeneration

Man active. 

Circumcise therefore the foreskin of

your heart, and be no more stiffnecked. Deuteronomy 10:16

Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes.

Isaiah 1:16

O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?

Jeremiah 4:14

Make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? 

  

                                                                    Ezekiel 18:31

Turn ye unto me.

Zechariah 1:3

Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead.

Ephesians 5:14

Ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man.

Colossians 3:9-10

Passive.

And the Lord thy God will circumcise

thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to

love the Lord thy God with all thine

heart.

Deuteronomy 30:6

Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

Psalm 51:2

Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.

Ezekiel 36:25-26

Turn thou us unto thee. O Lord, and we shall be turned.

Lamentations 5:21

But God. . . when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ . . . And hath raised us up together. . . . For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.

Ephesians 2:4-6,10

The simple fact is, that man is both active and passive in regeneration. The first series of texts brings to view his activity; the second, his passivity. Man is active in thinking upon the truth, in exercising his sensibilities in relation to it, and in giving up his heart to God; he is passive in that he is acted upon by the truth, and also by the Holy Spirit. He both acts and is acted upon. God does not, so far as we know, regenerate beings in a state of insensibility or indifference. There is, in a certain sense, a cooperation of the divine agency and the human in the regeneration of the soul. As Prof. Phelps 195 has said: "We cannot mistake in recognizing as another law of the Holy Spirit, that his work shall be concurrent with the will of the regenerate soul itself. Sanctification is a cooperative process. It may be suspended by resistance, and accelerated by obedience to the divine impulses. . . . Not by the breadth of a hair will the sovereignty of God invade the enclosure of that soul's freedom. The soul itself, in its own individuality, is the thing he would save. Its own love is the thing he craves. Its own submission is the right he claims. Its own chosen obedience is the service he requires."

This same idea of cooperation is expressed in the words of Paul:196 "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."

Justification

By Faith.

Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. . . . We conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

Romans 3:20, 28

For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.

Romans 4:2

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ.

Galatians 2:16

But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.

Galatians 3:11-12

By Works.

For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.

Romans 2:13

What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? . . . Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. . . . Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? .. . Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. . . . For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

James 2:14,17, 21-22, 24,26

¹⁹⁵ The New Birth, pp. 243-244.

¹⁹⁶ Philippians 2:12-13.

There is no collision between Paul and James. They merely present different aspects or relations of the same great truth. Paul is arguing against self-righteous religionists, who rely for salvation upon external morality, upon mere works; James addresses those who maintain that, provided a mans belief is correct, it matters little what his conduct is; that a "bare assentive faith is sufficient for salvation, without its living fruits in a holy life." In a word, Paul is combating Pharisaism; James, Antinomianism. One asserts: "Works are good for nothing except as they spring from faith"; the other responds: "Faith is of no value except as it produces works." Both together affirm the inseparable connection and unalterable relation of faith and works as cause and effect. John Taylor of Norwich: "The apostle James manifestly speaks of works consequent to faith, or of such works as are the fruit and product of faith. Whereas, St. Paul speaks of and rejects works considered as antecedent to faith. According to St. Paul, Abraham's justification refers to his state before he believed, or when he was ungodly; according to St. James, to his state after he believed, or when faith wrought with his works."

Whately: "Abraham is cited by Paul as an example of a man 'justified by faith' and by James, of a man 'justified by works'; the faith being manifested by the works which sprung out of it."

Andrew Fuller: "Paul treats of the justification of the ungodly, or the way in which sinners are accepted of God, and made heirs of eternal life. James speaks of the justification of the godly, or in what way it becomes evident that a man is approved of God. The former is by the righteousness of Christ; the latter is by works."

Stuart: "Paul is contending with a legalist, i.e. one who expected justification on the ground of his own merit. James is disputing with antinomians, such persons as held that mere speculative belief or faith, unaccompanied by works, was all which the gospel demands."

Alford and De Wette understand "faith," as used by James, to denote the result of the reception of the word, especially in a moral point of view; as used by Paul, as consisting in trust on the grace of God revealed in the atoning death of Christ.

(THE  FIRST  PART  ABOVE  SAYS  IT  NICELY  AND  SUCCINCTLY.  I  HAVE  COVERED  IT  IN-DEPTH  IN  MY  STUDY  CALLED  "SAVED  BY  GRACE"  -  Keith Hunt)

Sanctification

Through the truth.

Sanctify them through thy truth.

John 17:17

Through the Spirit.

Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit.

1 Peter 1:2

They were sanctified by the truth applied by the Spirit. The two were instruments in the work of sanctification. In the first passage, Alford employs the preposition "in," since the truth is the element in which the sanctifying takes place. As to the second text, the word "spirit" may refer either to the believer's own spirit, or to the Holy Spirit. Alford takes the latter signification; Beza says, "Vel Spiritus Sanctus, vel anima quae sanctificatur." The interpretation, "sanctification by the Spirit, in the truth," meets the requirements of both texts alike.

The fuller expression, 197 "Through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth," conveys the same idea.

Perfection

Christians are perfect.

Be ye therefore perfect, even us your

Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Matthew 5:48

Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded.

Philippians 3:15

Paul was not perfect.

If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect.

Philippians 3:11-12

The term "perfect" is used here in different senses. In Matthew it means complete, all-embracing, godlike in love of others. In Philippians 3:15 it means mature in Christian life. In the texts at the right it probably refers to the completion of Paul's life by martyrdom. Clement of Alexandria applies the term "perfection," "teleiosis," to the martyrdom of believers. He says: "We call martyrdom 'perfection,' 'teleiosis,' not because man receives it as the completion of life, but because it is the consummation of the work of love." Several other early writers

¹⁹⁷ 2 Thessalonians 2:13.

use the word, and its derivatives, in a similar sense.198 Hence Paul's meaning may be: "My Christian career has not yet culminated in martyrdom."

Many critics, however, think that he is alluding to the games or races of the ancients, and says figuratively that he—as a Christian—had not completed his course, and arrived at the goal, so as to receive the prize.

(THE  LAST  IS  MORE  CORRECT.  WE  AS  CHRISTIANS  ARE  TO  MOVE  TOWARDS  THE  PERFECTION  OF  THE  FATHER;  WE  ARE  PERFECT  IN  THE  SENSE  OF  UNDER  GOD'S  GRACE  -  AS  SINLESS  THROUGH  CHRIST.  WE  MUST  ALSO  AS  CHRISTIANS  REALIZE  WE  WILL  NOT  BE  PERFECTED  IN  GLORY,  IMMORTALITY,  TILL  THE  RESURRECTION,  WHEN  WE  SHALL  BE  TRULY  PERFECTED  IN  SINLESSNESS  AS  THE  FATHER  AND  CHRIST  ARE  -  Keith Hunt)

Final Perseverance

Impossible to fall from grace. 

And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.

John 10:28

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. . . . For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:29-30, 38-39

Some do fall from grace. 

But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.

Ezekiel 18:24

Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition.

John 17:12

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

Hebrews 6:4-6

For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? ... But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition.

Hebrews 10:26-29, 39

For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world 

through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus 

Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, 

the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 

For it had been better for them not to have known the 

way of righteousness, than, after they have known it,

to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.

2 Peter 2:20-21

¹⁹⁸ Comp. Luke 13:32; where the Peshito reads "shall be consummated."

The first series does not teach the impossibility of falling from grace, but merely the certainty that this will not occur. The auxiliary "shall" is too strong in these passages. The original expresses 'futurities,' thus; "will any pluck them out," "will be able to separate us," etc.

The second series may be taken as mere hypotheses—suppositions introduced for argument's sake. Such figures of speech are very common. Thus, in Galatians 1:8, Paul introduces this hypothesis: "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." He does not, of course, mean to affirm that an "angel from heaven" ever did, or would, preach a false gospel; he merely says: "On the supposition that one should do it." In 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, we have three of these hypotheses, or "suppositions without regard to fact," as they may be termed.

The hypothetical nature of the quotation from Ezekiel is clearly brought out in the parallel passage, Ezekiel 33:13: "When I shall say to the righteous that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness," etc.

In John 17:12, some construe thus: "None of them is lost; but the son of perdition is lost." This interpretation excludes Judas from the number of those who were "given" to Christ. Otherwise, if Judas is included, it may be said that those of whom Christ spoke were given simply for the "ministry and apostle-ship";199 and that nothing more is meant here.

¹⁹⁹ Acts 1:25.

The quotations from Hebrews200 and Peter are so obviously hypothetical that no comment is needed. Alford has the peculiar remark: "Elect and regenerate are not convertible terms. All elect are regenerate; but all regenerate are not elect. The regenerate may fall away; the elect never can."

Barnes, on Hebrews 6:6: "It is not an affirmation that any had actually fallen away, or that, in fact, they would do it; but the statement is, that on the supposition that they had fallen away, it would be impossible to renew them again."

It may be added that Calvinistic authors interpret the latter series of texts as referring to persons who have been considerably enlightened, but not truly converted; who have never really participated in the spiritual life. Armenian authors, and Alford with them, refer these texts to persons who, after being regenerated, have deliberately apostatized from Christ and his religion. The alleged discrepancy is easily removed by either method of interpretation.

(FOR  THOSE  TRULY  IN  CHRIST,  TRULY  CONVERTED,  THEY  WILL  REMAIN  FAITHFUL  TO  THE  END. I GUESS  YOU  MIGHT  SAY,  DEEPLY  CONVERTED.  THOSE  WHO  NEVER  HAD  THE  DEEP  CONVERSION,  ARE  INDEED  SUBJECT [UNDER  VARIOUS  TRIALS, TEST, TROUBLES, PERSECUTIONS]  TO  FALLING  AWAY  FROM  GRACE  -  Keith Hunt)

 

Christians not destroyed.

And I give unto them eternal life; and

they shall never perish.

John 10:28

May be destroyed.

Destroy not him with thy meat, for

whom Christ died.

Romans 14:15

And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?

1 Corinthians 8:11

These cautions and admonitions of the apostle are one of the effective means which God uses in preventing the destruction of weak believers.

(SHOWS  THERE  IS  THE  FIRST  CONVERSION….. THEN  IN  TIME  A  DEEPER  CONVERSION  -  Keith Hun)

The "called" all saved. 

Moreover whom he did predestinate, them  he  also  called:  and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

Romans 8:30

Some perish.

For many be called, but few chosen.

Matthew 20:16

The word "call," in the first case, signifies the "effectual call," such as secures its own acceptance, and the salvation of the "called." In the second case, the term denotes the general invitation of the gospel, extended to all men.

(THIS  IS  FULLY  EXPLAINED  IN  MY  STUDY  "CALLED  AND  CHOSEN - WHEN?"  AGAIN  IT  IS  THE  CONTEXT  OF  HOW  THE  WORD  "CALLED"  IS  USED.  THERE  IS  A  CALLING  TO  HEAR  THE  GOSPEL;  AND  THERE  IS  A  CALLING  THAT  MOVES  FROM  JUST  HEARING  TO  ACTING  UPON,  BECOMING  THEN  A  PART  OF  THE  "CHOSEN"  -  Keith Hunt)

Righteous—earthly lot

No evil befalls the Godly. 

There shall no evil happen to the just. Proverbs 12:21

And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?

1 Peter 3:13

Evil befalls them.

So went Satan forth from the presence

of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.

Job 2:7

For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

Hebrews 12:6

¹ Schoettgen gives a peculiar turn to Hebrews 6:6. See Horae Hebrakae, pp. 954-956.

The meaning is, that no permanent or ultimate evil befalls the good. All apparent evils which overtake them are but temporary, and result in high and lasting good. "All things"—the afflictions which came upon Job and the chastisements which God inflicts upon his people—"work together for good to them that love God."201 Not seldom the grown-up man is profoundly grateful for the disciplinary chastisement received from parents and teachers in his childhood. So the Christian, looking back from heaven, will doubtless thank God for the trials and sufferings of this earthly life, as for blessings in disguise.

(THE  BETTER  ANSWER  IS  THAT  THE  BIBLE  USES  "GENERAL  STATEMENTS"  -  FOR  WE  SEE  IN  HEBREWS  11  SOME  DO  SUFFER  PERSECUTION  AND  EVEN  DEATH,  FOR  THE SAKE  OF  GOD  AND  HIS  TRUTH;  WHILE  OTHERS  LIKE  THE  APOSTLE  JOHN  GO  THROUGH  LIFE  UNHARMED  AND  DIE  OF  OLD  AGE  -  Keith Hunt)

Worldly good and prosperity.

And the Lord was with Joseph, and he

was a prosperous man.

Genesis 39:2

So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning.

Job 42:12

His leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

Psalm 1:3

They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.

Psalm 34:10

Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

Psalm 37:3

Worldly misery and destitution. 

There be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked.

Ecclesiastes 8:14

And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.

Luke 21:17

They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins, and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented.

Hebrews 11:37

These are they which came out of great tribulation.

Revelation 7:14

The first texts lay down the general principle that righteousness has a tendency to ensure prosperity in worldly matters; yet they do not assert that this result invariably follows. We say, "Honesty is the best policy," yet we know that some rascals grow rich, while some honest men never succeed in business. Righteousness, because it promotes temperance, industry, frugality, and all other worthy qualities, tends normally to worldly prosperity.

(AGAIN  THE  BIBLE  USES  "GENERAL  STATEMENTS"  ALL  OVER  THE  PLACE;  GENERAL  MEANS  IT  IS  NOT  CAST  IN  STONE  -  Keith Hunt)

²⁰¹ Compare Romans 8:28, and Hebrews 12:11.

As to Joseph and Job, neither of them escaped very sore trials. The first citation from Psalms is a poetical statement of the principle that righteousness is conducive to worldly prosperity; the second asserts that no actual, ultimate good will be wanting to the righteous.

The second series sets forth certain apparent exceptions to the general rule, and illustrates the truth that, owing to the wickedness of the world, the pious encounter hostility and persecution in some form.

The first text of this series asserts that, in some cases, an apparently similar fate attends the evil and the good. But, as Hengstenberg says, this equality of result is only an external and partial one; while the final issue separates the righteous from the wicked.

The two next passages refer to the disciples and the ancient martyrs. The text from Revelation implies that the righteous enter heaven through "great trials" of various kinds. The combined passages teach that, while righteousness tends normally to secure earthly prosperity; yet, in certain cases, this tendency is temporarily interrupted by certain disturbing influences.

(AGAIN  "GENERAL  STATEMENTS"  -  BUT  IN  THE  END  THE  RIGHTEOUS  WILL  ALL  PROSPER,  WHILE  THE  UN-REPENTANT  SINNER  WILL  NOT  -  Keith Hunt)

Worldly prosperity, a reward.

If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles. Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks.

Job 22:23-24

His seed shall be mighty upon earth; the generation of the upright shall be blessed. Wealth and riches shall be in his house.

Psalm 112:2-3

In the house of the righteous is much treasure.

Proverbs 15:6

He shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.

Mark 10:30

A curse.

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth. . . . For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Matthew 6:19, 21

Blessed be ye poor; for yours is the kingdom of God.. .. But woe unto you that are rich!

Luke 6:20,24

So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

Luke 12:21

Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire.

James 5:1-3

As to the quotation from Job, the best critics agree substantially in the rendering, "Cast to the dust thy precious treasure, and to the stones of the brooks the gold of Ophir; then shall the Almighty be thy precious treasure," etc. This is nearly Conant's translation. Delitzsch; "Put far from thee the idol of precious metal with contempt." When Job thus casts from him temporal things, by the excessive cherishing of which he has hitherto sinned, God himself will be his imperishable treasure."

The texts from Psalms assert that God will not forsake his people, but will supply their needs. All exceptions to this rule are apparent, not real.

On Proverbs 15:6, Zockler: "The treasure stored up in such a house is the righteousness that prevails in it, a source and pledge of abiding prosperity."

In Mark 10:30 the limiting clause, "with persecutions," shows clearly that unmixed prosperity is not promised to the Christian.

The opposed texts forbid our idolizing, setting our affections upon, worldly things as our "treasure." They also pronounce blessings upon the "poor in spirit," the humble;202 and reprove those who "trust in riches."203 Neither the acquisition nor the possession of earthly riches is forbidden, but the making of wealth our god is prohibited.

(ONCE  MORE  "GENERAL  STATEMENTS"  APPLY  TO  SOME  OF  THESE  VERSES  -  Keith Hunt)

Poverty a blessing. 

Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

Mark 10:24-25

Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom?

James 2:5

Riches a blessing. 

So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.

Job 42:12

The rich man's wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty.

Proverbs 10:15

Neither desirable. 

Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: lest I be full and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.

Proverbs 30:8-9

The "rich man" of Mark 10:25 is described, in the preceding verse, as one who "trusts" in riches, making them his god. James teaches that there is in the humbler walks of life—in their freedom from the temptations, cares, and anxiety incident to wealth—something which is peculiarly favorable to the origin and growth of true piety.

As to the great wealth which the Lord bestowed upon Job, it is, says Barnes, substantially that of an Arab ruler or chief like those who, at the present day, are called Emirs.204 The turn in Job's affairs has its lesson. Mr. Cook, in Smith's Biblical Dictionary: "The restoration of his external prosperity, which

²⁰² See Matthew 5:3.

²⁰³ Compare Mark 10:24; 1 Timothy 6:17.

is an inevitable result of God's personal manifestation, symbolizes the ultimate compensation of the righteous for all sufferings undergone upon earth."

As to Proverbs 10:15, Stuart takes the meaning to be that there are times when the wealth of the rich will avert danger and suffering; and at such times the poor may perish for want of money. Zockler: "Naturally the author is here thinking of wealth well earned by practical wisdom; and this at the same time a means in the further efforts of wisdom; and again, of a deserved poverty which while the consequence of foolish conduct always causes one to sink deeper in folly and moral need." Lord Bacon: "This is excellently expressed, that riches are as a stronghold in imagination, and not always in fact; for certainly great riches have sold more men than they have bought out."

The prayer of Agur (Proverbs 30), embodies the sentiment that a moderate competence is better than extreme poverty or enormous wealth.

(ONCE  MORE  SOME  VERSES  FIT  BETTER  UNDER  "GENERAL  STATEMENTS"  -  Keith Hunt)

Wisdom, source of happiness. 

Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding . . . Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.

Proverbs 3:13,17

For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.

Proverbs 8:11

Cause of sorrow.

For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.

Ecclesiastes 1:18

Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, that this also is vanity.

Ecclesiastes 2:15

In the first texts, "wisdom" denotes spiritual wisdom, which prepares for and lays hold upon the future life. In the second case, the term implies mere worldly knowledge, unsanctified learning, wisdom limited to the sphere of this life. The "grief" and "sorrow" may refer to the depression of mind and bodily indisposition attendant upon intense and long-continued study and efforts to acquire knowledge, and to the frequent disappointment of this pursuit. The Germans have a proverb, "Much wisdom causeth headache."

(WELL  WHEN  YOU  KNOW  KNOWLEDGE  OF  THINGS,  YOU  ALSO  FIND  MUCH  TO  GIVE  YOU  SORROW;  WHEN  IGNORANT  OF  CERTAIN  THINGS  YOU  ARE  IGNORANT  OF  THE  SORROWS  THAT  ARE  OUT  THERE. BUT  TRUE  WISDOM  OF  SPIRITUAL  THINGS  DOES  BRING  GREAT  JOY  AND  COMFORT;  EVEN  EARTHLY  WISDOM  CAN  BRING  JOY -  THOSE  WHO  CAN  REMOVE  CATARACTS  FROM  THE  EYE,  MUST  FEEL  JOY  TO  GIVE  SIGHT  BACK  TO  OTHERS;  AND  SO  THE  LIKE  EXAMPLES  -  Keith Hunt)

A good name a blessing.

A good name is rather to be chosen

than great riches.

Proverbs 22:1

A good name is better than precious ointment.

Ecclesiastes 7:1

A curse.

Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.

Luke 6:26

²⁰⁴ The size of Job's flocks and herds is not wonderful. Parallel cases can be adduced in our own time. In an address before the "Hampden Agricultural Society," the lecturer mentioned a farmer in California who owns 100,000 sheep, and another with 135,000; also, a certain farm which produced 40,000 bushels of wheat, and another upon which 2,500 cows are kept. (See "Congregationalist," May 4, 1871). Yet infidels adduce the later wealth of Job as a thing incredible.

A "good name" does not necessarily imply that "all men speak well" of its possessor. Many a man has a good name—a solid and well-earned reputation— who has nevertheless numerous adversaries and calumniators. The denunciation in Luke is levelled at flatterers and time-serving sycophants, who, like modern politicians and office-seekers, are ever ready to sacrifice principle to popularity. Those ministers whose preaching offends no one, of whom "all men speak well," who prophesy "smooth things,"205 and "daub with untempered mortar,"206 are in the direct line of the woe denounced by our Lord.

Righteous not found begging 

I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.

Psalm 37:25

Some righteous beg.

And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus. . . . And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.

Luke 16:20, 22

The occasional and temporary exceptions, which had not fallen under David's notice, only prove the rule.

Hengstenberg: "It is not to be doubted, that God, while he withheld from the righteous of the old covenant, any clear insight into a future state of being, on that account unfolded his righteousness the more distinctly in his dealings towards them during this life, so that they might not err concerning it."

(AGAIN  "GENERAL  STATEMENTS"  MUST  APPLY   IN  ANY  GIVEN  CONTEXT  -  Keith Hunt)

They possess the earth.

Blessed are the meek: for they shall

inherit the earth.

Matthew 5:5

Mere sojourners here. 

For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.

1 Chronicles 29:15

For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.

Hebrews 13:14

Mr. Barnes thinks that the first text is a proverbial expression employed by the Jews to denote any great blessing; perhaps as the sum of all blessings. Schoettgen: "They [the meek] with their religion shall have dominion, not only in the land of Judea, but also through the whole earth." Alford: "That kingdom of God which begins in the hearts of the disciples, and is 'not of this world,' shall work onwards, till it shall become actually a kingdom over this earthy and its

²⁰⁵ Isaiah 30:10; Jeremiah 23:31.

²⁰⁶ Ezekiel 13:10-16; 22:28.

subjects shall inherit the earthy first in its millennial, and finally in its renewed and blessed state forever."

The church of Christ will be a permanent institution of ever-increasing influence and power; although the individuals who at any given time compose that church are but sojourners and wayfarers here below.

(INHERITANCE  DOES  NOT  MEAN  YOU  NOW  HAVE  IT.  YOU  PATIENTLY  WAIT  FOR  IT,  AS  KNOWING  YOU  WILL  HAVE  IT  ONE  DAY;  TILL  THEN  YOU  PILGRIM  ON  -  Keith Hunt)

Pilgrims and strangers.

And confessed that they were strangers

and pilgrims on the earth.

Hebrews 11:13

Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.

1 Peter 2:11

Not pilgrims and strangers. 

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God.

Ephesians 2:19

The first texts refer to Christians in their relation to the present world. They have no permanent home on earth; their citizenship is not here; they expect to remain here but a short time; they are passing on to their eternal home on high. The last quotation depicts them in their relation to the household of faith. They have been "adopted" into the holy brotherhood, and are entitled to all its privileges and blessings. Hence they are no longer to be regarded as outcasts and aliens, but as members of the celestial family.

(YES  CHRISTIANS  ARE  YET  TO  INHERIT  SOMETHING  GREATER  THAN  THEIR  STATE  OF  BEING  IS  NOW;  AND  YES  WE  ARE  NOW  CHILDREN  OF  GOD  -  Keith Hunt)

They surely live.

But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right, . . . hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept my judgments, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord God.

Ezekiel 18:5, 9

Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

John 11:26

Some of them die.

For he seeth that wise men die.

Psalm 49:10

There is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness.

Ecclesiastes 7:15

The first texts refer to spiritual or eternal life; the last to mere physical or temporal death, which all alike, good and bad, undergo.

Menasseh ben Israel 207 has this suggestion: "Divine justice sometimes chastises the righteous in this world for some sin, that he may receive the full reward of his good actions in the next; and the punishment of the wicked is sometimes delayed to pay him for some good he may have done in this, and to punish him fully in the other when the balance is adjusted."

²⁰⁷ Conciliator, ii. 214.

Will be persecuted.

All that will live godly in Christ Jesus

shall suffer persecution.

2 Timothy 3:12

Not persecuted.

When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.

Proverbs 16:7

Andrew Fuller:208 "The truth seems to be that neither of the above passages is to be taken universally. The peace possessed by those who please God does not extend so far as to exempt them from having enemies; and, though all godly men must in some form or other be persecuted, yet none are persecuted at all times. God has always given his people some seasons of rest. The former of these passages may therefore refer to the native enmity which true godliness is certain to excite; and the latter to the divine control over it. Mans wrath shall be let loose in a degree; but farther than what is necessary for the praise of God it shall not go."

(AGAIN  "GENERAL  STATEMENT"  IN  MANY  VERSES  -  Keith Hunt)

Handled roughly.

And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.

Luke 22:31

Not touched.

He that is begotten of God keepeth

himself, and that wicked one toucheth

him not.

1 John 5:18

The first text does not say that Satan actually gained possession of Peter, but merely that he "desired" to do so; the second verse that the "wicked one" does not inflict any permanent injury upon the believer.

Christian yoke, easy.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. . . . For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Matthew 11:28, 30

Burdensome.

In the world ye shall have tribulation. John 16:33

For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. . . . But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. 

Hebrews 12:6, 8

In certain important aspects or relations, the yoke of Christ is "easy." Christianity, being a spiritual religion, is far less burdensome than are false religions; it imposes much fewer ceremonies and observances than do they. It is also congruous with man's reason, conscience, and all his nobler instincts, and

²⁰⁸ Works i. 683.

satisfies the needs and aspirations of his higher spiritual nature. The Christian life is the normal life of man.

Looking from another point of view, the Christian's yoke may be deemed "burdensome." For Christianity, being a pure religion, comes in direct collision with the deep sinfulness of the human heart; it is in intense antagonism with everything corrupt and evil. Hence the Christian must "crucify the flesh" with the passions and lusts, and in so doing must pass through many a sore trial and conflict.

Wicked—earthly lot

Longevity ascribed to them. 

Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes.

Job 21:7-8

Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged.

Ecclesiastes 8:12

The sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.

Isaiah 65:20

Denied to them.

They die in youth, and their life is

among the unclean.

Job 36:14

Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days.

Psalm 55:23

The years of the wicked shall be shortened.

Proverbs 10:27

But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow.

Ecclesiastes 8:13

The affirmative texts do not assert that all the wicked live to old age. As to the first citation, Zophar had just asserted that the "portion" of a wicked man is to be cut off in a moment. Job, in reply, denies the universality of this principle, and says that some of the wicked do live, become old, and mighty in power. Yet he evidently regards these as exceptional cases: for he adds: "How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! and how oft cometh their destruction upon them!"

The two next quotations do not assert the longevity of sinners, but are purely hypothetical.

The four opposed texts assert the general principle that the tendency of vice is to shorten human life. Of this the statistics of intemperance, licentiousness, and crime in general afford grim and appalling proof. The sense of the combined texts is, that many of the wicked perish early through their sins, but that some, in exceptional cases, live on to old age.

They prosper.

The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and

they that provoke God are secure.

Job 12:6

Men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure.

Psalm 17:14

Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish. . . . Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. 

                                                                   Psalm 73:7,12

Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?

Jeremiah 12:1

Will not prosper.

Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that

hate the righteous shall be desolate.

Psalm 34:21

Evil pursueth sinners.

                                                                    Proverbs 13:21

The first five texts refer to the temporary prosperity which the wicked not infrequently enjoy. The transitory nature of this prosperity was not comprehended by the Psalmist, until he went into the sanctuary of God; then he understood the end of the wicked, that they were "set in slippery places." 209

Menasseh ben Israel: "God sometimes delays the punishment of the wicked, either that they may repent, or to reward them in this life for some good action they may have performed, or for some secret reason known only to his consummate wisdom."

The last two texts do not assert that evil pursueth and shall slay the wicked without a moment's delay, but merely that this will ultimately be the case.

(AGAIN  "GENERAL  STATEMENTS"  WITHIN  A  CONTEXT  -  Keith Hunt)

See the Divine glory.

And the glory of the Lord shall be

revealed,   and   all  flesh   shall   see   it

together.

Isaiah 40:5

Will not see it.

In the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord.

Isaiah 26:10

The wicked will not voluntarily recognize the "majesty"—the sovereignty and glory—of the Lord; but he will eventually be compelled to see and acknowledge it, as displayed in the final reward of virtue and punishment of vice, at the last great day.

Sin with impunity.

Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. . . . Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.

Job 21:9,14

Promptly punished.

The worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken as a tree. . . . They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all other, and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.

Job 24:20, 24

209 See Psalm 73:16-18.

Theodore Parker 210 deems it an evidence of the "exquisite art" and "naturalness" with which the book was written, that Job, in his distraction, is represented as affirming and denying a thing almost in the same breath.

A better explanation of passages like the above is, that in relation to our limited wisdom and impatient feelings—as we often look at matters—the wicked are not punished promptly, but sin with impunity; while upon a comprehensive and impartial view of the case—as infinite wisdom sees it—they are punished promptly, that is, at exactly the right time.

Their punishment denied.

 Behold, as wild asses in the desert, go they forth to their work; rising betimes for a prey: the wilderness yieldeth food for them and for their children. They reap every one his corn in the field. . . . Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to them.

Job 24:5-6,12

Affirmed.

This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty. If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword: and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.. .. For God shall cast upon him, and not spare: he would fain flee out of his hand.

Job 27:13-14, 22

Hirzel:211 "While Job's opponents wished to prove this proposition against him, that 'the transgressor did not escape punishment in his life' and charged it upon Job himself that, since every transgressor was miserable, therefore every miserable man was a transgressor; to parry this argument Job had hitherto, though against his better judgment, denied the entire proposition; and, since his opponents had laid it down as a permanent and universal rule, he had confirmed this denial by adducing numerous examples where the contrary was true. But now he goes on to explain the matter to his friends, and admits that they have rightly apprehended the law by which the transgressor's lot is determined." Yet, while making this concession, he points out an error into which they have fallen in applying the principle. This explanation relieves the difficulty by referring the "apparent contradiction" to the different relations in which Job speaks.

Nor, on the hypothesis that Job was not inspired as a religious teacher, is it of the slightest consequence whether or not we can establish the concinnity of all his utterances.

(ONCE  MORE  BOTH  CAN  BE  TRUE  AT  TIMES;  BOTH  ARE  GENERAL  STATEMENTS  -  Keith Hunt)

²¹⁰ Translation of De Wette, ii. 557.

²¹¹ Quoted by De Wette, ii. 561.

Retribution on Earth

Reward and punishment here. 

Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner.

Proverbs 11:31

Hereafter.

For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

Matthew 16:27

And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

Revelation 20:12

It is not asserted, in the first text, that either the righteous or wicked receive full recompense in this world. The meaning, doubtless, is that the beginnings of retribution are seen here on the earth. Stuart: "The same retributive government which begins to assert its power in this world, will continue its processes in the world to come"

Melancthon, Bishop Hall, Edwards, Lange, and other critics take the word "recompensed" as referring exclusively to the punishment of wrongdoing. Hence, the sentiment is, "If the righteous in this world suffer chastisement for their misdeeds, much more surely shall the impenitent be punished for their wilful transgression." That is, the argument is derived from the corrective discipline experienced by good men on earth in favor of the just retribution which shall be meted out hereafter to the incorrigible sinner. In no aspect is it affirmed that full and final retribution is administered in this world.

(TRUE,  BUT  IT  IS  IN  THE  CONTEXT  OF  THIS  EARTH,  THAT  THE  RIGHTEOUS  WILL  BE  IMMORTALIZED  AND  REWARDED;  AND  THE  UN-REPENTANT  SINNER  WILL  BE  REWARDED  IN  THE  LAKE  OF  FIRE,  ON  THIS  EARTH;  AS  ALL  SCRIPTURES  SHOW  -  Keith Hunt)

………………..

TO BE CONTINUED

BIBLE  CONTRADICTIONS  #7

6. MAN, In Relation to the Future—Death

Men must die.

So death passed upon all men, for that

all have sinned.

Romans 5:12

And as it is appointed unto men once to die.

Hebrews 9:27

Some will not die.

If a man keep my saying, he shall never

see death.

John 8:51

And whosoever liveth and believeth in

me shall never die.

John 11:26

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all

be changed.

                                                                  1 Corinthians 15:51

We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the 

Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. . . . 

The dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are 

alive and remain shall be caught up together with them 

in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.

                                                                            1 Thessalonians 4:15-17

He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

                                                                                       Revelation 2:11

The two texts from John refer not to physical but to spiritual death. The Pauline quotations contemplate the righteous who shall be living on the earth at the time of Christ's second coming. These will not indeed literally "die," but will be "changed"; that is, undergo a transformation equivalent to death, putting off mortality and putting on immortality. All will experience either death, or what is tantamount to it. As Alford says: "The sleep of death cannot be predicated of all of us, but the resurrection-change cam''

Revelation 2:11 also denotes not physical death, but the final punishment of the incorrigibly wicked. It is fitly termed "death," as being an eternal separation from hope and happiness, and an exclusion from all which is worthy of the name "life."

Lazarus not to die.

Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.

John 11:3-4

He did die.

Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe.

John 11:14-15

"This sickness is not unto death"; that is, the ultimate result will not be "death," but "the glory of God." And so it proved, for many of the Jews who witnessed the raising of Lazarus from the dead, believed on the Son of God.²¹² Thus the Father was glorified in the Son.

Man dies like a beast.

For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast.

Ecclesiastes 3:19

His death different.

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Ecclesiastes 12:7

²¹² Compare John 11:45.

In one aspect of the case, there is no distinction between the death of man and that of beasts. Both are uncertain as to the time of it; both are powerless to prevent it; the physical phenomena, in each case, are much the same. In these respects there is a very close resemblance, and this may be the relation of which the author is speaking.

Or, with many commentators, we may say that Solomon raises and answers objections as Paul does so often. Thus the passage in question (Ecclesiastes 3:18-20), beginning "I said in mine heart," etc., may be merely an objection which, being suggested to the mind of Solomon, he proceeds to discuss and solve. Dr. Davidson 213 thinks that the author brings before his readers doubts suggested by observation and reflection, or in some cases presented to him by others. Prof. Stuart: When we view the author in the light of proposing the doubts and difficulties which perplexed his own mind, and sooner or later as solving them, then we meet with no serious embarrassment in interpreting the book.

Prof. Tayler Lewis, in Lange, takes the words, "I said in mine heart concerning," etc., as equivalent to, "I deduced this inference from men's lives, I put this interpretation upon their conduct, that, in their own view, they are beasts." It is man's judgment upon himself, as pronounced by his own conduct. It is the language of his life.

A terribly severe, but no less just, estimate of man, from a point of view apparently identical with his own.

Death ceases.

Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

2 Timothy 1:10

Still exists.

It is appointed unto men once to die.

Hebrews 9:27

"Hath abolished death"; hath taken away its sting and terror, so that it is no longer death, as a grim and terrible monster, but a kind angel come to conduct the believer home to heaven. Alford: "By the death of Christ, death has lost his sting; and is henceforth of no more account; consequently the act of natural death is evermore treated by the Lord himself and his apostles as of no account; and its actual and total abolition foretold."

Men, immortal.

Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.

Luke 12:4

God only, immortal.

The King of kings, and Lord of lords;

who only hath immortality.

1 Timothy 6:15-16

²¹³ Introd. to Old Testament, ii. 385.

The first text is a strong incidental proof that the soul's "immortal," since it does not die with the body. It is beyond the power of the persecutor. When he has killed the body his fury has expended itself; he can do no more; he cannot reach or harm the soul. The survival of the soul is thus plainly implied and assumed by our Lord.

(IT  IS  THE  "SPIRIT"  THAT  GOES  BACK  TO  THE  LORD  AS  IN  ECC. 12:9.  BUT  THAT  DOES  NOT  AUTOMATICALLY  MEAN  THE  SPIRIT  OF  MAN  STILL  THINKS,  TALKS,  SPEAKS,  WALKS  AROUND  HEAVEN.  THAT  IDEA  IS  FROM  THE  "IMMORTAL  SOUL"  TEACHERS,  WHICH  IS  AN  ERROR,  BROUGHT  IN  BY  THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH,  WITH  AN  EVER-BURING  HELL  FIRE,  AND  A  THIRD  PLACE  CALLED  PURGATORY  -  Keith Hunt )

The second text is interpreted by "mortal-soulists," 214 as denying immortality to all beings except God. Hence it would follow that the angels—Gabriel, and Michael the archangel even—are mortal! And if, as Alford thinks, the above text refers to the Father exclusively, it would also follow that the Lord Jesus himself is mortal!

(THERE  IS  MUCH  MORE  TO  THE  QUESTION  OF  HUMANS  BEING  "IMMORTAL"  ALREADY.  THE  READER  SHOULD  STUDY  THE  STUDY  CALLED  "DEATH  -  THEN  WHAT?"  ON  THIS  WEBSITE,  FOR  THE  INDEPTH  COVERAGE  OF  THIS  TOPIC  -  Keith Hunt)

By parity of reasoning the language employed in Romans 16:27, "God only wise," warrants the inference that God is the only being who possesses wisdom!

The meaning in both cases obviously is that only God possesses the given attribute, inherently and underivedly. Justin Martyr: "He has not this through the will of another, as all the other immortals, but through his own essence." Theodoret: "Immortal by essence, not by participation."

Upon no reasonable interpretation does the passage collide with the derived and dependent immortality of man.

(OKAY,  THESE  VERSES  TO  NOT  CONTRADICT;  BUT  THE  SUBJECT  OF  MAN  BEING  CREATED  WITH  AN  IMMORTAL  SOUL  THAT  CONTINUED  TO  THINK,  ACT,  WALK,  TALK,  SEE,  ALL  IN  HEAVEN [IF  "GOOD"]  OR  IN  AGONY  AS  BURNING  FOREVER  IN  HELL-FIRE [IF  BAD]  IS  A  MUCH  LARGER  TOPIC  THAN  A  FEW  VERSES  ABOVE  -  Keith Hunt)

Men kill the soul.

Joshua took Makkedah, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof he utterly destroyed, them, and all the souls that were therein.

Joshua 10:28

And they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them: there was not any left to breathe.

Joshua 11:11

Cannot kill it.

And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Matthew 10:28

It is scarcely necessary to allude to the fact that our word "soul" is used in two entirely distinct senses. Thus we say, "The soul is immortal," and, alluding to a marine disaster, "Every soul perished." In the latter case, "soul" is synonymous with "person." This secondary meaning of the word may have arisen from the fact that it is the soul of man which gives him personality. Be this as it

²¹⁴ We use this term, instead of "Thnetopsychites," the name employed by John Damascenus (see Hagenbach's History of Doctrines, i. 221), to designate those who deny the natural immortality of the soul or spirit of man. The term maybe extended to include also the denial of consciousness to the soul in the interval between death and the resurrection. Apparently the first attempt to introduce Thnetopsychism into the Christian church was made, a.d. 248, by certain errorists from Arabia. Compare Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History, Book vi., chap, xxxvii.; and Guericke's Ancient Church, p. 228.

may, the most orthodox theologians employ the term in these widely different senses.

The corresponding Hebrew and Greek terms are used with similar latitude. Thus, according to Fuerst, the Hebrew word "nephesh" sometimes means the soul, ox, spirit; in other cases, an individual, a person, man. Gesenius says, spirit, soul, mind; also a man, person.

In view of this fact, when one text asserts that Joshua "slew all the souls" in a city, and another affirms that man is "not able to kill the soul," we see that here is no discrepancy. The term "soul," in one case, refers to man in his earthly make-up, as we see him; in the other, to the deathless intelligence which survives the dissolution of its tabernacle, the body.

If, as mortal-soulists assert, the soul actually dies with the body, then he who "kills" the latter, in that very act kills the former also. If the Siamese twins are so connected that the death of one involves that of the other, then the murderer who kills Chang, by that very stroke kills Eng likewise. That is, according to the theory we are criticising, man is as really "able to kill the soul" as God is.

(IT  IS  TRUE  MAN  DOES  HAVE  A  "SPIRIT"  IN  HIM,  OR A  LIFE  ESSENCE  THAT  DOES  NOT  DIE  WITH  THE  BODY  BUT  GOES  BACK  TO  GOD  WHO  GAVE  IT  [ECC. 12:9];  BUT  THAT  DOES  NOT  AUTOMATICALLY  MEAN  IT  CONTINUES  TO  THINK,  TALK,  SPEAK,  WALK,  OF  AND  BY  ITSELF.  THE  READER  NEEDS  TO  STUDY  THE  STUDIED  CALLED  "DEATH  -  THEN  WHAT?"  AND  "THE  SPIRIT  IN  MAN"  -  Keith Hunt)

Immortality possessed

I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.

Luke 12:5

To be acquired.

Who by patient continuance in well

doing seek for glory and honour and

immortality.

Romans 2:7

The first passage implies that there is an intelligence, a spirit, in man, which outlives and is not affected by the dissolution of the body. Hence God, after he has killed the body, may cast the soul into hell. It is the immortal part which survives to be thus disposed of.

(NOPE,  THE  VERSE  DOES  NOT  SAY  THAT;  THAT  INTERPRETATION  IS  BEING  READ  INTO  THE  VERSE.  THE  VERSE  SIMPLY  MEANS  AND  SAYS  GOD  CAN  KILL  TWO  TIMES.  ONCE  IN  THIS  LIFE,  AND  AGAIN  FOR  UN-REPENTANT  SINNERS,  INTO  THE  LAKE  OF  FIRE,  THE  SECOND  DEATH  -  REVELATION  20  -  Keith Hunt)

As to Romans 2:7, a favorite inference of mortal-soulists is this: "Since man is here spoken of as seeking 'immortality' it follows that he does not possess it by nature." To this characteristic sophism, it is sufficient to reply that, as every scholar is aware, the Greek word used here is not "athanasia," immortality, but "aphtharsia," incorruption, 215 and points to that exemption from moral corruption which the saints are "seeking" here, and which they will fully attain in heaven. The passage does not touch the question of man's immortality at all.

(IF  THE  VERSE  DOES  NOT  TOUCH  MAN'S  IMMORTALITY  AT  ALL,  THEN  THE  VERSES  CANNOT  PROVE  MAN  IS  IMMORTAL  ALREADY,  AND  ON  PHYSICAL  DEATH  GOES  TO  HEAVEN  OR  HELL-FIRE;  IN  HEAVEN  WALKING,  TALKING,  SEEING,  HEARING,  THINKING;  IN  HELL-FIRE  GROANING  IN  AGONIZING  SUFFERING  OF  SOME  KIND  FOR  ALL  ETERNITY  -  Keith Hunt)

²¹⁵ See Ephesians 6:24, where the same word is translated "sincerity."

Intermediate State

Dead unconscious.

His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth not of them.

Job 14:21

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. 

                                                     

                                                                                       Ecclesiastes 9:10

Conscious.

But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.

Job 14:22

The rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments.

Luke 16:22-23

As preliminary to the discussion, we repeat that there is no proof that Job or any of his friends were inspired—divinely commissioned as religious teachers. 216

(THAT'S  A  COP  OUT;  IT  WAS  NOT  JUST  JOB  WHO  SPOKE  THIS  WAY  ABOUT  DEATH  -  Keith Hunt)

Moreover, the ideas of the ancients, particularly in that early age in which Job lived, were very vague and obscure respecting the future state. "Life and immortality" were not "brought to light" till Christ came.

(YES  TRUE,  AND  JESUS  SAID  "NO  MAN  HAS  ASCENDED  UP  TO  HEAVEN  BUT  HE  THAT  CAME  FROM  HEAVEN"  -  GOSPEL  OF  JOHN  -  Keith Hunt)

Whately, following Warburton, says: "To the Israelites of old Moses had no commission to hold out the hopes and fears of another world, but only a 'land flowing with milk and honey' and long life, and victory, and other temporal rewards. But the 'bringing in of a better hope' by the gospel taught the Christian to 'set his affection on things above, not on things on the earth' and to look for a heavenly Canaan, a land of promise beyond the grave. God's kingdom of old was a kingdom of this world; but Christ's kingdom is 'not of this world.'"217

Dr. Davidson 218 thus sets forth the Hebrew view of the condition of the dead in "sheol," the place of departed spirits: "Their time is passed in a kind of sleep, whence they are only roused by some uncommon occurrence. Thus they are represented as shut up in a land of forgetfulness—dreamy shades almost destitute of consciousness."

Dr. Jahn, in his Biblical Archaeology, 219 gives, as will be seen subsequently, a more attractive view than the foregoing rationalistic one of Dr. Davidson. However, in the most favorable aspect of the case, it must be admitted that the notions of the ancient Israelites respecting the future life were not seldom quite obscure and indefinite. Nor is this strange; for revelation is progressive. There

²¹⁶ Professor Stuart, speaking of the irrelevant appeals which are made to the Old Testament,
both in and out of the pulpit, and the unsuitable quotations made from it, observes: "Books
of such a peculiar nature as Job and Ecclesiastes, for example, are resorted to with as much
confidence for proof-texts, as if they were all preceptive, and not an account of disputes
and doubts about religions matters."—History of Old Testament Canon, p. 409 (Revised
edition, p. 382).

²¹⁷ Future State, p. 150.

²¹⁸ Introd. to Old Testament, ii. 290.

²¹⁹ Section 314.

is an onward march of doctrine in the Bible, from its beginning to its close. The great truths of the Divinity of the Messiah, the atonement, justification by faith, and human immortality, were imperfectly revealed and crudely held in patriarchal times. Hengstenberg: "As far as the saints of the Old Testament attained in their knowledge, they were quite right; they were only excluded from farther light. But it is error alone which inspiration excludes, not the defect and imperfection of knowledge."

Those early times were the dim dawn of revelation; our age beholds the full radiance of the gospel sun at his meridian height. This consideration explains the apparent disagreement between the New Testament and the Old in regard to the intermediate state.

(NO  THERE  IS  NO  DISAGREEMENT  ABOUT  PHYSICAL  DEATH  BETWEEN  THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT.  BOTH  TEACH  THE  SAME  THING.  THERE  IS  INDEED  A  SPIRIT  IN  MAN  THAT  GOES  BACK  TO  GOD  AT  DEATH.  BUT  THAT  SPIRIT  DOES  NOT  FUNCTION  WITHOUT  A  BODY  TO  FUNCTION  IN.  WHILE  IN  THE  PHYSICAL  BODY,  IF  THERE  IS  A  HEAD  INJURY  THAT  EFFECTS  THE  BRAIN [CAN  NOT  LONGER  RECALL  ANYTHING  IN  THE  PAST,  AS  ONE  EXAMPLE]  THE  "SPIRIT"  DOES  NOT  TAKE  OVER  AND  RECALL  THE  PAST.  IF  YOU  LOOSE  A  LEG  THE  SPIRIT  IN  MAN  DOES  NOT  GIVE  YOU  A  LEG  TO  WALK  ON  AS  LIKE  YOU  NEVER  LOST  A  PHYSICAL  LEG.  EXAMPLES  COULD  BE  ENDLESS.  SUCH  ARGUMENTS  AS  ABOVE  ARE  CONTRIVED  TO  GET  AROUND  THE  PLAIN  OLD  AND  NEW  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES  THAT  PROVE  THE  SPIRIT  IN  MAN  IS  NOT  A  LIVING,  THINKING,  SPEAKING,  WALKING,  HEARING,  PERSON  IN  HEAVEN  AT  DEATH,  OR  A  MOANING,  WAILING,  PERSON  IN  HELL-FIRE  FOR  ALL  ETERNITY  -  Keith Hunt)

Just here the reader will observe that nearly all of the texts adduced by mortal-soulists to prove the unconsciousness of the dead, are taken from the Old Testament and particularly from its poetical books. Now, to go back from noonday to twilight in search of our eschatology—to ignore the plain and dear teachings of the New Testament, and adopt as a basis of doctrine the poetic utterances of a preliminary, rudimental, far less spiritual dispensation—does not indicate the highest wisdom on the part of those who pursue this course. Yet this is the policy adopted by the mortal-soulists in advocating their theory.

(AGAIN  A  WEAK,  VERY  WEAK  ARGUMENT;  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  IS  AS  INSPIRED  AS  THE  NEW;  PAUL  SAID,  ALL  SCRIPTURE  IS  GOD  BREATHED.  THERE  ARE  CLEAR  VERSES  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  THAT  SHOW  PEOPLE  [GOOD  ONES;  CHRISTIAN  ONES]  DO  NOT  GO  TO  HEAVEN  AT  DEATH.  JESUS  CAME  FROM  HEAVEN  AND  JESUS  SAID,  NO  MAN  HAS  ASCENDED  UP  TO  HEAVEN  BUT  HE  THAT  CAME  DOWN  FROM  HEAVEN….. HIMSELF.  HE  SHOULD  SURELY  KNOW  AS  HE  WAS  WITH  THE  FATHER  FROM  ETERNITY  -  Keith Hunt)

But let us examine the foregoing texts.

Job 14:21 simply refers to man in his relation to the present life, and asserts that at death he is entirely dissociated from the things of earth; he has no more connection with them. But the very next verse shows that consciousness is not denied to the dead.

(AH  JOB  IS  JUST  UTTERING  TRUTHS  OF  LIFE  AND  DEATH,  NOT  NECESSARILY  FOLLOWING  EACH  OTHER.  IF  THESE  VERSES  FOLLOW  EACH  OTHER,  LET'S  BE  LOGICAL,  WHO  WOULD  WANT SUCH  IMMORTALITY?  THEY  CAN'T  RECOGNIZE  THEIR  CHILDREN,  EVEN  THE  UPS  AND  DOWNS  IN  LIFE  THEY  HAVE;  YET  HE  IS  IMMORTAL  WITH  PAINFUL  FLESH [DO  YOU  STILL  HAVE  FLESH  FOR  ALL  ETERNAL  IMMORTALITY?],  AND  THE  SOUL  OR  SPIRIT  IN  MAN  IS  MOURNING.  NOW  WHAT  KIND  OF  IMMORTALITY  IS  THAT?  MAYBE  YOU  WANT  TO  ARGUE  IT  IS  THE  IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  WICKED  IN  HELL-FIRE;  SOME  KIND  OF  FLESH  THAT  BURN  AND  CAN  HAVE  PAIN,  AND  THE  MIND [SOUL,  SPIRIT  IN  MAN]  IS  MOURNING.  SURELY  YOU  DO  NOT  FROM  THESE  TWO  VERSES  WANT  TO  ARGUE  IT  IS  THE  IMMORTALITY  CONTINUING  FOR  CHRISTIANS  AFTER  THEIR  PHYSICAL  DEATH?  IF  THAT  IS  WHAT  IS  ARGUED  HERE,  THEN  I  SAY  THAT  IS  SOME  STRANGE  IMMORTALITY  FOR  CHRISTIANS  AFTER  DEATH.  HENCE  THE  AGNOSTICS  AND  ATHEISTS  LAUGH  AT  THE  BIBLE  AND  PEOPLE  WHO  MAKE  UP  SUCH  SILLY  THEOLOGY  IDEAS.  NOTICE  ALL  THE  PREVIOUS  VERSES  FROM  VERSE 17.  WHEN  DOES  GOD  SEAL  UP  OUR  INIQUITIES [IN  GROWING  UP?  IN  OUR  20s?  IN  OUR  30s?  IN  OUR  60s?].  DO  THE  MOUNTAIN  FALL,  THEN  THE  ROCKS?  OR  IS  IT  SOMETIMES  THE  ROCK  THAN  MOVES,  AND  THEN  MAYBE  SOMETIME  THE  WHOLE  MOUNTAIN.  THE  WATERS  WASH  AWAY  THE  STONES….THEN  AFTER  THAT  DOES  GOD  WASH  AWAY  THE  THINGS  OUT  OF  THE  DUST  OF  THE  EARTH?  THEN  AFTER  THOSE  THING,  GOD  DESTROYS  THE  HOPE  OF  MEN?  OR  DOES  THE  HOPE  OF  MEN  COME  DOWN  FOR  WHATEVER  REASON  BEFORE  THE  WATER  WEARS  THE  STONES?  DOES  THE  WATER  HAVE  TO  WEAR  THE  STONES  BEFORE  GOD  CAN  WASH  AWAY  THINGS  WHICH  GROW  IN  THE  DUST?  OR  CAN  IT  BE  THE  OTHER  WAY  AROUND?  OF  COURSE  IT  CAN!

VERSES  21  AND  22  ARE  NOT  CONSECUTIVE;  THEY  CONTRASTIVE!

JOB  IS  CONTRASTING  DEATH  AGAINST  THE  CONTRAST  OF  THAT  WHICH  IS  OFTEN [GENERAL  STATEMENT]  IN  THIS  PHYSICAL  LIFE.  IN  THIS  PHYSICAL  LIFE  WE  OFTEN  HAVE  PAIN  IN  THE  FLESH  FROM  THIS  OR  THAT;  AND  OUR  MENTAL  LIVES  [INNER  SOULS  OR  SPIRIT] OFTEN  MOURNS,  AGAIN  FROM  THIS  OR  THAT  CIRCUMSTANCE.  THESE  VERSES  ARE  NO  MORE  CONSECUTIVE  THAN  THE  MOUNTAINS  FALLING [AN  EARTHQUAKE]  THAN  THE  ROCKS  BEING  REMOVED.  A  MOUNTAIN  IS  A  MOUNTAIN;  A  ROCK  IS  A  ROCK;  A  ROCK  FROM  A  MOUNTAIN  CAN  FALL  BEFORE  A  MOUNTAIN  IS  REMOVED;  A  MOUNTAIN  CAN  BE  REMOVED  BEFORE  A  ROCK  FALLS.  

THESE  VERSES  ARE  STATEMENTS  OF  FACTS  -  NOT  STATEMENTS  OF  A  MUST  BE  ORDER  -  A  MUST  BE  ONE,  TWO,  THREE,  ORDER.

JOB  IN  VERSE  22  IS  STATING  WHAT  MANY  PEOPLE  GO  THROUGH  IN  THIS  PHYSICAL  LIFE  -  PAIN  IN  THE  FLESH  AND  MOURNING  IN  THE  SPIRIT,  WITH  THE  CONTRAST  OF  DEATH  IN  VERSE  21  -  FREEDOM  FROM  PHYSICAL  PAIN  AND  MENTAL  ANGUISH  IN  THE  PEACE  OF  DEATH,  WHERE  SUCH  PHYSICAL  THINGS  HAVE  NO  EFFECT  ON  YOU.

NOTICE,  STARTING  WITH  VERSE  10,  "BUT  MAN [NOT  HIS  BODY]  -  MAN  DIETH,  AND  WASTETH  AWAY:  YES,  MAN  [NOT  HIS  BODY]  GIVES  UP  THE  SPIRIT [YES  IT  GOES  BACK  TO  GOD  WHO  GAVE  IT  -  ECC.  12:9],  AND  WHERE  IS  HE?…..SO  MAN [NOT  HIS  BODY]  LIES  DOWN,  AND  RISES  NOT;  TILL  THE  HEAVENS  BE  NO  MORE,  THEY [NOT  THEIR  BODY]  SHALL  NOT  AWAKE,  NOR  BE  RAISED  OUT  OF  THEIR  SLEEP!  O  THAT  THOU  WOULD  HIDE  ME  IN  THE  GRAVE,  THAT  YOU  WOULD  KEEP  ME  SECRET,  UNTIL  YOUR  WRATH  IS  PAST [THE  GREAT  DAY  OF  THE  LORD  IN  BIBLE  PROPHECY,  ABOUT  THE  LAST  YEAR  OF  THIS  AGE  BEFORE  JESUS  RETURNS];  THAT  YOU  WOULD  APPOINT  ME  A  SET  TIME,  AND  REMEMBER  ME  [NOT  MY  BODY].  IF  A  MAN  DIE,  SHALL  HE  LIVE  AGAIN?  ALL  THE  DAYS  OF  MY  APPOINTED  TIME  WILL  I  WAIT,  TILL  MY  CHANGE  COME  [THE  RESURRECTION  TO  IMMORTAL  LIFE -  1 COR. 15]. YOU  SHALL  CALL  AND  I  [NOT  MY  BODY]  WILL  ANSWER  THEE:  YOU  WILL  HAVE  A  DESIRE  TO  THE  WORK  OF  YOUR  HANDS"  [VERSES  12-15].

GOD  WILL  FINISH  THE  WORK  OF  SALVATION  WITH  HIS  CHILDREN,  WHEN  HE  CALLS  AT  THE  TIME  OF  THE  RESURRECTION;  WHEN  THE  SAINTS  [NOT  THEIR  BODY,  AS  A  WHOLE  SPIRIT  PERSON]  SHALL  BE  CALLED  BACK  TO  A  THINKING,  HEARING,  TALKING,  WALKING,  SEEING,  PERSON,  THOUGH  NOW  IN  IMMORTAL  SPIRIT  FORM,  AT  THE  COMING  OF  CHRIST, WHEN  THE  RESURRECTION  OR  INSTANT  CHANGE  COMES  TO  THE  SAINTS  OF  ALL  AGES.

DEATH  AND  THE  RESURRECTION  TOPICS  ARE  COVERED  IN  FULL  IN-DEPTH  DETAIL  ON  THIS  WEBSITE  -  Keith Hunt)

  

As to the next citation, Stuart and Hengstenberg take it as the statement of an objection which is afterwards refuted. The latter says: "The manner of the scriptures is to let doubts and murmurings have free and full expression, and then to vanquish them in open conflict with the sword of faith."

(MEANS  NOTHING  IN  EXPLAINING  THESE  VERSES,  JUST  MUMBO-JUMBO  -  Keith Hunt)

Job 14:22 is rendered by Delitzsch: "Only on his own account his flesh suffereth pain, and on his own account is his soul conscious of grief." Similarly Eichhorn, Noyes, Barnes, and Conant. Hofmann: "The pain of his own flesh, the sadness of his own soul alone engage him. He has therefore no room for rejoicing, nor does the joyous or sorrowful estate of others, though his nearest ones, affect him."

(AT  TIMES  THAT  CAN  BE  TRUE  OF  ANY  OF  US;  A  GENERAL  STATEMENT  ONLY,  AS  SOME  GO  THROUGH  LIFE  WITH  LITTLE  PAIN  OR NO  PAIN  IN  THE  BODY,  AND  LITTLE  OR  NO  ANGUISH  OF  THE  MIND  -  Keith Hunt)

As to the text from Luke, if it be a parable, we may then say, with Bishop Bull, "It plainly belongs to the very scope and design of this parable to show what becomes of the souls of good and bad men after death." If it is not a parable its tenor cannot be a matter of doubt.

(IT  IS  NOT  A  PARABLE!  BUT  FEW  UNDERSTAND  WHAT  JESUS  WAS  SAYING.  I  EXPLAIN  IN  DETAIL  THE  TRUTH  OF  THIS  DISCORD  OF  LAZARUS  AND  THE  RICH  MAN  BY  JESUS  IN  A  STUDY  ON  THIS  WEBSITE  -  Keith Hunt)

Prof. Bartlett: 220 "The question whether this is a history or a parable it is not necessary to discuss. In either mode the scripture teaches truth, important and often vital truth. The chief difference is that one mode asserts what has occurred; the other, what does occur.'"

In any aspect Christ could not have lent his sanction to falsehood or imposture. As Alford fitly remarks, "In conforming himself to the ordinary language current on these subjects, it is impossible to suppose that he whose essence is truth could have assumed as existing anything which does not exist. It would destroy the truth of our Lords sayings, if we could conceive him to have used popular language which did not point at truth. And, accordingly, where such language was current, we find him not adopting, but protesting against it."221

Therefore, with Alford, Trench, Wordsworth, and the best commentators, we take the passage relative to the rich man and Lazarus as teaching, at all events, two things: first, that the soul of man is conscious after death; and secondly that, according to its moral character, it goes either into a place of happiness and repose or into one of disquiet and misery. These two thoughts not only lie upon the surface of the narrative; but they also constitute its very life and essence.

(OH  HOW  WRONG  ARE  SOME  OF  THE  SO-CALLED  "SCHOLARS"  OF  THEOLOGY;  ON  SOME  VITAL  ISSUES  THEY  ARE  AS  DUMB  AS  SHEEP;  THEY  ARE  THE  BLIND  LEADING  THE  BLIND;  AND  AS  JESUS  SAID, BOTH  SHALL  FALL  INTO  THE  DITCH  THE  TRUTH  OF  THIS  LAZARUS  AND  THE  RICH  MAN  IS  FULLY  EXPLAINED  ON THIS  WEBSITE  -  Keith Hunt)

The dead, asleep

.

And Jeroboam slept with his fathers,

even with the kings of Israel.

2 Kings 14:29

For now should I have lain still and been quiet. I should have slept.

Job 3:13

Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus

is dead.

John 11:11-14

And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Acts 7:60

Awake.

Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth.

Isaiah 14:9

Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient.

1 Peter 3:18-20

I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

Revelation 6:9-10

The language which represents death as a "sleep" is figurative, and is founded upon a certain resemblance of external phenomena. But this application

²²⁰ Life and Death Eternal, p. 219.

²²¹ See Matt 15:5-6.

of the term does not necessitate the unconsciousness of the "sleeper;" for, as even Whately 222 concedes, "The mind, certainly for the most part, and probably always, continues active during sleep, though in a different manner." A high authority, Dunglison's Medical Dictionary, defines "sleep" as "temporary interruption of our relations with external objects." It is this interruption, with the attendant inaction, the insensibility to external material objects, and the repose, which makes sleep the "image of death." In neither case have we proof that the mind ceases to act, becomes unconscious, or extinct.

The citation from Isaiah represents the dead as awake and conscious. Delitzsch: "All hades is overwhelmed with excitement and wonder, now that the king of Babel, that invincible ruler of the world, who, if not unexpected altogether, was not expected so soon, is actually approaching."

On the next quotation Alford says: "With the great majority of commentators, ancient and modern, I understand these words to say that our Lord, in his disembodied state, did go to the place of detention of departed spirits, and did there announce his work of redemption, preach salvation in fact, to the disembodied spirits of those who refused to obey the voice of God when the judgment of the flood was hanging over them."

Prof. Tayler Lewis: 223 "We are taught that there was a work of Christ in hades. He descended into hades; he makes proclamation 'ekeruxen' in hades to those who are there 'in ward" This interpretation, which was almost universally adopted by the early Christian church, 224 and which is far more tenable than any other, involves, of course, the consciousness of departed souls.

The text from Revelation is very explicit, representing the souls of those who had suffered martyrdom, not as insensible, but as awake in the place of rest.

(YA  AND  THEY  ARE  ALL  [THOUSANDS  OF  THEM - TENS  OF  THOUSANDS  OF  THEM  -  SAINTS  OF  ALL  AGES]  UNDER  THE  ALTAR  IN  HEAVEN,  ACCORDING  TO  THE  REST  OF  THIS  REVELATION  VERSE.  AGAIN  THE  BLINDNESS  AND  SILLY  REASONING  OF  "SCHOLARS"  OF  THEOLOGY,  IS  AMAZINGLY  DUMB  AT  TIMES.  THE  ABOVE  ARGUMENTS  ARE  ALL  ANSWERED  ON  THIS  WEBSITE  IN  VARIOUS  STUDIES  -  Keith Hunt)

Devoid of knowledge.

For in death there is no remembrance of

thee: in the grave who shall give thee

thanks?

Psalm 6:5

The dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward: for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy,  is  now perished;  neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.

Ecclesiates 9:5-6

Possess knowledge.

And he said, For I will go down into

the grave unto my son mourning.

Genesis 37:35

And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? . . . And the Lord hath done to him, as he spake by me: for the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thy hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David. . . . Moreover, the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines: and to morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me: the Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.

                                                               1 Samuel 28:15,17,19

(SUPPOSED  PROOF  OF  LIVING  ON  AFTER  DEATH,  IN  A  STATE  OF  THINKING,  TALKING,  SPEAKING  ETC.  THE  CONTEXT  SHOWS  SAUL  HAD  GONE  TO  A  MEDIUM  AT  ENDOR.  PEOPLE  WHO  WORK  WITH  THE  DARK  SPIRIT  WORLD  CAN  INDEED  BRING  UP  SUPPOSED  DEAD  RELATIVES  AND  FRIENDS.  THE  DEMONIC  WORLD  ARE  ABLE  TO  APPEAR  AND  TALK  AS  IF  PAST  PEOPLE  THEY  KNEW  ARE  ALIVE  -  Keith Hunt)

Future State, p. 82.

In Lange on Ecclesiastes, p. 130. Compare Bib. Sacra, Vol. iv. 708; xvi. 309; xix. 1.

" Professor Huidekoper: "In the second and third centuries, every branch and division of Christians, so far as their records enable us to judge, believed that Christ preached to the departed."—Christ's Mission to the Underworld, pp. 51, 52. Dietelmair, in his elaborate "Historia Dogmatis de Descensu Christi ad Inferos," says emphatically that this doctrine "in omni coetu Christiano creditum."—See chapters iv. and vi., of that work.

(WHAT  THE  SO-CALLED  "CHURCH"  TAUGHT  AT  ANY  TIME,  MEANS  NOTHING;  THE  CHURCH  IN  CATHOLIC  AND  PROTESTANT  EYES  MEANS  THEIR  CHURCH.  AND  THEIR  CHURCH  HAS  NOTHING  TO  DO  WITH  THE  VERY  TRUE  CHURCH  OF  GOD,  AND/OR  THE  TRUTHS  OF  THE  BIBLE  -  Keith Hunt)

Not living

For the grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.

Isaiah 38:18

But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.

2 Samuel 12:23

(PRETTY  STRAIT  FORWARD  TALK  HERE,  NO  THEOLOGY  DEGREE  NEEDED  —  Keith Hunt)

Living

I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment .... Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. 

                                                                                     Luke 16:27-28, 30

For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.

1 Peter 4:6

David's words are highly poetical and figurative, representing the dead as entirely separated from earthly scenes, employments, and society; and especially as giving, so far as visible and material things are concerned, no evidence of sensation or emotion. They speak of death in its earthly aspect.

(NOT  POETICAL  AT  ALL…… THEY  MEAN  WHAT  THEY  SAY  AND  SAY  WHAT  THEY  MEAN  -  Keith Hunt)

The quotation from Ecclesiastes, Hengstenberg and Stuart take as the statement of an objection, with a view to refute it. The bald literalism which mortal-soulists apply to this passage is simply suicidal. For, it is asserted of the dead, including the saint as well as the sinner, and without any qualification, "Neither have they any more a reward" Now a literal exegesis of this language absolutely cuts off Abraham, Moses, David, and all the righteous dead from any future reward! We think the above-named theorists would be slow to admit this logical result of their methods of exposition. Yet there is quite as much reason for insisting upon a literal interpretation of the words just cited, as of the clause, "The dead know not any thing."

(YES  IT  IS  LITERAL!  THE  REWARD  THEY  DO  NOT  HAVE  IS  THE  REWARDS,  PAYMENTS,  HONOR….  ALL  THAT  THE  PHYSICAL  WORLD  CAN  BESTOW  ON  PHYSICAL  PERSONS.  YOU  HAVE  ARMY  PERSONS  BEING  AWARDED  MEDALS  OF  HONOR;  YOU  HAVE  PEOPLE  AWARDED  THE  "NOBEL  PRIZE"  -  YOU  HAVE  CITIZENS  BEING  REWARDED  OR  AWARDED  MEDALS  OF  BRAVERY;  YOU  HAVE  "HONORY  DEGREES"  AWARDED  TO  PEOPLE  FOR  LIFE  TIME  ACHIEVEMENTS.  THIS  IS  THE  "NO  REWARD"  THE  DEAD  DO  NOT  HAVE.  IT  HAS  NOTHING  TO  DO  WITH  THE  REWARD  ALL  SAINTS  WILL  RECEIVE  AT  THE  COMING  OF  CHRIST  -  Keith Hunt)

The true explanation of this and kindred texts is the following: Zockler: "The author now sees only the conditions of this world"; he speaks of man merely in his relation to the present life. This interpretation agrees admirably with the closing words, "Neither have they any more a portion forever in any thing that is done under the sun." That is, so far as this world is concerned, the dead have no knowledge, nor reward, nor portion. They are as completely severed from earthly affairs, as if they had passed into extinction.

(YES  BUT  THE  SCRIPTURES  ALLSO  SAY  THE  DEAD  CANNOT  PRAISE  GOD.  TO  THINK  THE  SAINTS  IN  HEAVEN  ARE  ALIVE  IN  THOUGHT  AND  WORD,  AND  CANNOT  PRAISE  GOD,  IS  RIDICULOUS  TO  THE  NINTH  DEGREE  -  Keith Hunt)

The quotation from Isaiah, is the language of king Hezekiah of whose "inspiration" there is no proof.

(ALWAYS  A  GOOD  WAY  OUT  TO  NOT  ADMIT  A  TRUTH,  JUST  SAY  THEY  WERE  NOT  INSPIRED  TO  SAY  OR  WRITE  SUCH  AND  SUCH  A  THING  -  Keith Hunt)

Of the affirmative passages, the first should be rendered, "I will go down into sheol unto my son mourning."

Prof. Tayler Lewis: 225 "Jacob was going to his son; he was still his son; there is yet a tie between him and his father; he is still spoken of as a personality; he is still regarded as having a being somehow and somewhere." . . . "It was not to his son in his grave, for Joseph had no grave. His body was supposed to be lying somewhere in the desert, or torn in pieces, or carried off, by the wild beasts."

(DO  WE  NOT  YET  USE  SUCH  LANGUAGE;  "I  GO  TO  MY  SON  IN  DEATH"  -  A  WAY  OF  SAYING  I  WILL  NOW  [OR  SHORTLY]  JOIN  MY  SON  IN  DEATH.  WE  DO  NOT  ALWAYS  MEAN  SUCH  PHRASES  AS  LITERALLY  AS  JOINING  HIM  IN  TALKING  TO  HIM,  WALKING  AROUND  WHEREVER  WITH  HIM,  PLAYING  BASKET  BALL  WITH  HIM,  OR  KICKING  A  SOCCER  BALL  AROUND  WITH  HIM.  AGAIN  THOSE  WHO  TEACH  GOING  TO  HEAVEN  OR  HELL-FIRE  AT  DEATH,  WILL  GRAB  ON  TO  ANYTHING  TO  HOLD  THEIR  THEOLOGY.  IF  PEOPLE  DO  GO  TO  HEAVEN  AT  DEATH,  THEN  PEOPLE  ALSO  GO  TO  HELL-FIRE  AND  ARE  IN  SOME  KIND  OF  TORMENT  FOR  ETERNITY.  SUCH  THEOLOGY  KEEPS  THE  BIBLE  SKEPTIC  AND  ATHEIST  AS  A  SKEPTIC  AND  ATHEIST  -  Keith Hunt)

Herder: 226 "Abraham was gathered to his fathers, 227 though he was not buried with them, and Jacob wished to go down to the realm of shades to his beloved son, although he supposed him to have been torn in pieces by wild beasts." In a word, Jacob expected, as a disembodied spirit, to meet and recognize the spirit of his son in the underworld. The same idea pervades David's words in 2 Samuel 12 concerning his child. As to 1 Samuel 28, apparently the soul of the prophet was permitted to return from sheol, and announce to the terrified Saul his impending destruction. The reproof and the prediction are exactly in keeping with the character of Samuel, and show that he knew whereof he affirmed. He had not, therefore, in death parted with his knowledge.

FIGURES  OF  SPEACH  ARE  USED  THROUGHOUT  THE  BIBLE.  BULLINGER  WROTE  A  1,000  PAGE  BOOK  ON  "FIGURES  OF  SPEECH  IN  THE  BIBLE."  AS  STATED  DEMONS  ARE  ABLE  TO  APPEAR  THROUGH  MEDIUMS,  AS  PEOPLE  YOU  ONCE  KNEW.  AND  THEY  CAN  ALSO  SPEAK  TRUTH.  PAUL  SAID  SATAN  HIMSELF  CAN  APPEAR  AS  AN  ANGEL  OF  LIGHT.  IF  HE  CAN  LOOK  LIKE  AN  ANGEL  OF  LIGHT,  HE  CAN  SURELY  DECEIVE  BY  WORDS  OF  TRUTH  ALSO,  AMONG  WORDS  OF  DECEPTION  -  Keith Hunt

Keil: "The modern orthodox commentators are unanimous in the opinion that the deceased prophet did really appear, and announce the destruction of Saul, not, however, in consequence of the magical arts of the witch, but through a miracle wrought by the omnipotence of God." Lord Arthur Hervey in Bible Commentary, and Archbishop Trench in "Shipwrecks of Faith," concur in this view. This is far the most natural and reasonable explanation. Saul's sin of "necromancy" 228 was thus made the occasion and commencement of his punishment.

(NOPE!  SATAN  AND  DEMONS  CAN  COME  AS  ANGELS  OF  LIGHT;  LOOKING  LIKE  AND  SPEAKING  LIKE  THEY  ARE  ANGELS  OF  LIGHT;  HOW  EASIER  THEN  FOR THEM  TO  COME  AS  PEOPLE  KNOWN  IN  THE  PAST  BY  OTHERS.  PROBABLY  A  LOT  OF  UFOs  HAVE  BEEN  DEMONS  IN  VARIOUS  FORMS  TO  HAVE US  BELIEVE  THERE  IS  INTELLIGENT  LIFE  OUT  IN  THE  UNIVERSE,  EVEN  MORE  ADVANCED  THAN  US,  WHO  ARE  SNOOPING  AROUND  OUR  PLANET  -  Keith Hunt)

We have elsewhere seen that the narrative of Dives in Luke 16 presupposes the retention of knowledge by departed souls.

(LAZARUS  AND  THE  RICH  MAN  PARABLE  IS  GROSSLY  MISUNDERSTOOD;  IT  DOES  MEAN  WHAT  IT  SAYS; BUT  FEW  LET  IT  INTERPRET  ITSELF;  OR  LET  THE  BIBLE  INTERPRET  THE  PARABLE;  THE  TRUTH  OF  IT  IS  NOT  THIS  WEBSITE  -  Keith Hunt)

²²⁵ In Lange on Genesis, p. 585.

²²⁶ Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, i. 179.

²²⁷ Alger, commenting on this expression, after citing the cases of Abraham and Isaac, of whom
language similar is used, adds: "These instances might be multiplied. They prove that to be
gathered unto one's fathers,' means to descend into sheol, and join there the hosts of the
departed."—Hist, of Doct. of Fut. Life, p. 152.

²²⁸ See Law in Deuteronomy, 18:10-12.

Alford interprets 1 Peter 4:6, of the souls of the antediluvians, shut up in hades, to whom Christ made the proclamation referred to in chapter 3:17-18. This interpretation assumes the possession of knowledge by disembodied spirits.

(ALFORD  LIKE  MANY  OTHERS,  IS  WAY  OUT,  FROM  PLANET  PLUTO,  ON  UNDERSTANDING  THESE  VERSES  CORRECTLY.  IF  MANKIND  DOES  HAVE  AN  IMMORTAL  SOUL  THAT  CONTINUES  ON  THINKING,  REASONING,  TALKING,  WALKING,  SEEING,  AFTER  DEATH,  THEN  A  HELL-FIRE  DOES  AWAIT  THE  SINNER,  WHO  IS  IN  ANGUISH  AND  TORMENT  FOR  ALL  ETERNITY.  A  TEACHING  THAT  GIVES  THE  ATHEISTS  ALL  THEY  NEED  TO  LAUGH  AT  THE  BIBLE  -  Keith Hunt)

Exercise no mental powers.

The dead praise not the Lord, neither

any that go down into silence.

Psalm 115:17

His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

Psalm 146:4

Do exercise them.

Dead things are formed from under the

waters, and the inhabitants thereof.

Job 26:5

Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee. . . . All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us.

Isaiah 14:9-10

And behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias. Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.

Luke 9:30-31

For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.

Luke 20:38

The first passage is a voice from out the twilight of the Old Dispensation. Life and immortality not having been fully revealed as yet, the author spoke according to his degree of knowledge and illumination.

(NOPE!  HE  SPOKE  AS INSPIRED  BY  GOD.  THIS  WAS  NOT  HIS  WRONG  IDEAS  AT  ALL,  IT  WAS  THE  FACT  OF  TRUE  THEOLOGY  AS  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  WRITERS  KNEW  VERY  WELL;  AND  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  WRITERS  ALSO.  THE  FIRST  PASSAGE  IS  TALKING  ABOUT  THE  "DEAD"  PERIOD,  NOT  A  CERTAIN  PART  OF  THE  DEAD,  BUT  JUST  "THE  DEAD"  THE  SECOND  VERSE;  YES  THE  PREVIOUS  VERSE  DOES  TALK  ABOUT  "PRINCES"  AND  "SONS  OF  MEN"  -  BUT  THAT  DOES  NOT  MEAN  THEY  ARE  THOUGHTS  OF  WICKEDNESS,  THERE  MAYBE  NO  HELP  FROM  THEM  IN  SPIRITUALITY  AND  SALVATION,  BUT  THAT  DOES  NOT  MEAN  THEIR  THOUGHTS  ARE  ALL  WICKEDNESS  -  Keith Hunt)

In the second text, the "thoughts that perish" are the wicked man's plans and purposes which come to naught at his decease. Hengstenberg: "The thoughts which go to the grave with the dying man are his vain projects." 229

(DOES  NOT  SAY  ANYTHING  ABOUT  THEM  BEING  THE  THOUGHTS  OF  THE  WICKED,  OR  OF  "VAIN  PROJECTS."  Keith Hunt)

In the case of the rich fool, 230 his "thoughts" of building larger barns, and of many years of ease and prosperity—all his selfish and worldly schemes—"perished" in that same night.

Delitzsch renders Job 26:5, thus: "The shades are put to pain, deep under the waters and their inhabitants." With this rendering Barnes, Conant, and Noyes substantially agree.

Isaiah 14:9 is rendered by Delitzsch, "The kingdom of the dead below is all in uproar on account of thee, to meet thy coming; it stirreth up the shades for thee." Similarly Henderson, Noyes, and other critics. Now the Hebrew term "rephaim," rendered "dead" in our version of the last two texts, means according

²²⁹ In Isaiah 55:7, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts," the
term "thoughts" is used in a similar bad sense. According to literalistic principles, this pas
sage amounts to an exhortation to stop thinking!

²³⁰ See Luke 12:16-20.

to the best Hebraists, not simply the dead, but "that part of man which survives death." 231

(THE  STIRRING  UP  THE  DEAD  AT  THEY  COMING,  IS  THE  TRUTH  OF  RESURRECTIONS,  IN  THE  CONTEXT  OF  THE  GLORIOUS  COMING  AND  REIGN  FOR  1,000  YEARS  OF  CHRIST  ON  EARTH.  AS  JESUS  SAID  THE  DAY  IS  COMING  THAT  ALL  IN  THE  GRAVES  SHALL  HEAR  HIS  VOICE,  ADN  ALL  WILL  COME  FORTH [JOHN 5].   -  Keith Hunt)

As to the first text from Luke, all that need be said is this; Moses had been dead nearly fifteen centuries. But the disciples now see and recognize him, and hear him speak. It does not, therefore, seem probable that Moses became extinct at death, but that his soul survived and continued to exercise its faculties. Otherwise, it would seem that his identity must have been lost at death; and that for him—the original self-same Moses—there could be no after-life.

(THE  ANSWER  IS  FOUND  IN  MATTHEW'S  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  TRANSFIGURATION….. "TELL  THE  VISION"  JESUS  SAID,  TO  NO  MAN.  IT  WAS  ALL  A  VISION  -  IN  THE  MIND'S  EYE.  IT  WAS  NOT  REALITY.  MOSES  AND  ELIJAH  WERE  NOT  THERE  IN  REAL  TIME  REALITY.  IT  WAS  A  VISION!  OH  THE  SILLINESS  OF  MEN  WHO  WILL  NOT  READ  ALL  ACCOUNTS;  THEN  IN  NOT  DOING  THEY  ARE  DECEIVED  INTO  A  FALSE  DOCTRINE  -  Keith Hunt)

Luke 20:38; He is not a God of extinct or non-existent beings, therefore Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are still living. The soul then survives the body, and a resurrection is possible. 232 As Lavater and Stier well say, the passage is a "weighty testimony against the 'sleep of the soul' in the intermediate state." The preceding passages clearly presuppose the conscious activity of departed souls.

(ONCE  MORE  THE  MISTAKE  IS  MADE  OF  NOT  READING  THE  CONTEXT!  GOING  BACK  TO  VERSE  34  OR  VERSE  27,  WE  SEE  THE  CONTEXT.  IT  IS  TO  DO  WITH  THE  WORLD  TO  COME,  AND  THE  RESURRECTION  -  SEE  VERSE  33.  JESUS  GOES  ON  TO  TALK  ABOUT  "THAT  WORLD"  AND  "THE  RESURRECTION  FROM  THE  DEAD" [VERSE 35].  GOD  IS  NOT  THE  GOD  OF  THE  DEAD  -  ONLY  ABLE  TO  BE  THEIR  GOD  UP  TO  PHYSICAL  DEATH,  BUT  HE  IS  A  GOD  OF  THE  LIVING,  FOR  THOSE  WHO  DIED  WILL  LIVE  AGAIN;  THEY  WILL  BE  GOD'S  CHILDREN,  FOR  THEY  WILL  BE  THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  RESURRECTION [VERSE  36].  THIS  HAS  NOTHING  TO  DO  WITH  "LIVING  ON"  AFTER  DEATH;  IT  HAS  EVERYTHING  TO  DO  WITH  THE  CONTEXT  OF  MARRIAGE  AND  THE  RESURRECTION.  GOD  IS  A  GOD  OF  THE  LIVING  FOR  ALL  LIVE  IN  HIM.  BACK  TO  JOHN  5  -  ALL  EVENTUALLY  IN  THE  GRAVES  WILL  HEAR  THE  VOICE  OF  CHRIST  AND  WILL  LIVE  AGAIN  -  Keith Hunt)

In darkness and silence.

There the prisoners rest together; they

hear not the voice of the oppressor.

Job 3:18

Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death.

Job 10:21

Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction? Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

Psalm 88:11-12

In glory and blessedness.

Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel,

and afterward receive me to glory.

—      Psalm 73:24

The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto

the perfect day.

Proverbs 4:18

Whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:6

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Philippians 1:21

Of Job's authority as a religious teacher we have previously spoken. 

(BACK  TO  JOB  BEING  UN-INSPIRED,  JUST  A  MAN  WITH  HIS  OWN  THOUGHTS,  WHICH  TO  MANY  MEAN  UNINSPIRED  AND  NOT  TO  BE  TAKEN  SERIOUSLY  -  A  EASY  COP-OUT  -  Keith Hunt)

As to the language cited from the eighty-eighth Psalm, it is Oriental poetry, therefore hyperbolical and intensely figurative. To interpret it literally, is to do it the utmost possible violence. For example, in the fifth verse it is said of the "slain" that God remembers them no more; in the sixth verse, the Psalmist represents, himself as "in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps." Upon these latter words

¹³¹ Professor Conant, in Smith's Bib. Diet., Article "Dead," says the term means "disembodied spirits separated from the body at death, and continuing to live in a separate existence." Fuerst: "A shadow, shadowy being." He adds that, in the two passages just referred to, these shades are represented as stirred up out of their rest, and as feeling the administrative agency of God. Gesenius: "The shades, manes, dwelling in hades, whom the Hebrews supposed to be destitute of blood and animal life, but yet not wholly without some faculties of mind." See, also, Boettcher, "De Inferis," pp. 94-100.

²³² Consult Alford's significant, but concise, comment on this text.

Hengstenberg says, "the grave of deep places, in verse 6, is sheol deep in the earth, and 'the dark places' are the dark places of sheol." But was the Psalmist already in sheol, the underworld? This would be the absurd conclusion to which a rigid literalism would lead.

(OF  COURSE  HE  WAS  NOT  YET  IN  SHEOL,  BUT  HE  KNEW  ABOUT  WHAT  SHEOL  WAS  AND  CONTAINED…… WHEN  HE  GOT  THERE….. WHEN  HE  GOT  TO  THE  GRAVE….. THERE  IS  FOR  THAT  PERSON  NONE  OF  GOD'S  LOVING-KINDNESS,  FAITHFULNESS,  WONDERS,  OR  RIGHTEOUSNESS.  THERE  IS  DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  PHYSICAL  PERSON,  THERE  IS  DARKNESS,  THERE  IS  FORGETFULNESS …..  YOU  DO  NOT  CONTINUE  TO  THINK,  TALK,  SPEAK,  REMEMBER,  WALK  AROUND,  PLUCK  ON  A  HARP,  OR  STARE  AT  THE  FACE  OF  JESUS  IN  GLIRIOUS  BRIGHTNESS  -  Keith Hunt)

On the theory that the dead are unconscious, in darkness and silence, the "path of the just" instead of growing brighter "unto the perfect day," is disrupted at death by a fearful chasm of black nonexistence. In place of a continuous shining track of light, we see a yawning abyss of unfathomable gloom. 

(NO  YOU  DO  NOT  SEE  "GLOOM"  AS  RECOGNIZING  IT.  YOU  SEE  NOTHING.  AS  WHEN  YOU  GO  TO  SLEEP  AT  NIGHT;  YOU  SEE,  HEAR,  SMELL,  TALK,  THINK,  NOTHING.  SURE  SOMETIMES  WE  HAVE  DREAMS,  BUT  OFTEN  WE  DO  NOT.  LAST  NIGHTS  SLEEP  FOR  ME  WAS  NO  DREAMING,  NO  LIGHT,  NO  SPEAKING,  NO  THINKING,  NO  PRAISING  GOD,  NO  WALKING  ABOUT,  NO  HEARING.  I  FELT  NO  UNFATHOMABLE  GLOOM  -  IT  PEACE  AND  RESTFULNESS,  AND  ONLY  AS  IF  A  SECOND  TO  WHEN  I  WAS  AWAKE  -  Keith Hunt)

Nor would Paul lying unconscious in the grave be "present with the Lord" more truly than when he was living in the love, service, and fellowship of Christ. Nor does it appear that it would be "gain" for Paul to "die"—to relinquish his loving, tireless, and blessed labor for the Master, and go into unconscious hibernation or blank nonentity, in the cold sepulchre. A glowing heart like Paul's would hardly count a dormant state, like that of "The Seven Sleepers," to be "gain."

In this connection, we give the views of the Hebrews, particularly those of later and more enlightened times.

(THE  VERSES  FROM  PAUL,  THE  PSALMS  AND  PROVERBS,  SHOW  WHAT  IS  TO  BE  AFTER  DEATH;  WHAT  IS  TO  BE  FOR  THE  SAINTS  OF  GOD.  AND  SO  DEATH  IS  GAIN;  WE  ARE  FREE  FROM  THE  CARES  AND  CONCERNS  OF  THIS  LIFE;  FREE  FROM  THE  TROUBLES,  TRIALS  OF  LIFE;  FREE  FROM  ANY  PHYSICAL  PAINS  OF  LIFE;  FREE  FROM  ANY  METAL  ANGUISHES  OF  LIFE.  AND  GLORY  AND  LIGHT  DOES  AWAIT  US.  THE  QUESTION  IS  WHEN  DOES  THE  SAINT  GET  ALL  THIS,  AND  GET  TO  BE  WITH  CHRIST?  THE  WHOLE  AND  EVERY  VERSE  ON  THIS  TOPIC  MUST  BE  SORT  FOR  AND  FOUND  BEFORE  WE  HAVE  THE  ANSWER.  THE  ANSWER  IS  PROVED  ON  MANY  STUDIES  ON  THIS  WEBSITE.  THERE  IS  NO  RECOGNITION  OF  TIME  WHEN  SLEEPING.  THE  SAINT  RECEIVES  GLORY,  LIGHT,  PERFECTNESS,  AND  ARE  WITH  CHRIST,  WHEN  HE  CALLS.  WE  SHALL  COME  FORTH  TO  LIFE  AND  GLORY  AT  THE  RESURRECTION,  OR  BE  INSTANTLY  CHANGED  FROM  MORTAL  TO  IMMORTALITY,  AT  THE  LAST  TRUMP,  AT  THE  COMING  OF  JESUS.  MANY  STUDIES  ON  THIS  WEBSITE  PROVE  THIS  TO  BE  THE  TRUE ANSWER  TO  DEATH  AND  THE  RESURRECTION.  THE  READER  IS  ENCOURAGED  TO  STUDY  THOSE  STUDIES  -  Keith Hunt)

Lightfoot: 233 "It was universally believed amongst the Jews, that pure and holy souls when they left this body went into happiness, to Abraham."

(WHAT  THE  JEWS  BELIEVE  IS  NOTHING.  IT  IS  WHAT  THE  BIBLE  TEACHES  THAT  IS  CORRECT.  AND  CONCERNING  JEWS…… THERE  IS  A  STANDING  JOKE  EVEN  AMONG  JEWS  THEMSELVES;  "ASK  THREE  A  JEWS  A  QUESTION  AND  YOU'LL  GET  THREE  DIFFERENT  ANSWERS."  -  Keith Hunt)

Dr. Jahn: 234 In sheol "the departed spirits rejoice in that rest so much desired by the Orientals; and there the living hope to see once more their beloved ancestors and children."

(WHAT  MAN  HAS  TO  SAY  ALSO  MEANS  NOTHING;  IT  IS  WHAT  THE  BIBLE  TEACHES  THAT  IS  CORRECT  AND  THAT  IS  THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  MATTER  -  Keith Hunt)

Not with Christ.

Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come, so now I say to you.

John 13:33

For David is not ascended into the heavens.

Acts 2:34

The righteous with him. 

And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

Luke 23:43

Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

Acts 7:59

We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:8

For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.

Philippians 1:23

²³³ Hor. Hebraicae, iii. 171 (Gandell's edition).

²³⁴ Bib. Archaeol., Sec. 314.

The first text alludes to the time subsequent to Christ's ascension. Then he was no longer visibly and personally with them; whither he had gone they could not then go. Their earthly mission must first be accomplished.

David had not been raised from the dead, and his body and soul reunited. He had not yet ascended to heaven, and entered upon his full reward, but was in the intermediate state, tranquilly awaiting the resurrection.

(SOUNDS  LIKE  THIS  "INTERMEDIATE  STATE"  IS  A  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  TEACHING,  A  KINDA  PURGATORY  BUT  A  PROTESTANT  ONE,  IN  WHATEVER  FORM  THEY  MEAN  BY  IT.  THE  VERSE  DOES  NOT  SAY  DAVID'S  BODY  AND  SOUL  WAS  NOT  YET  RE-UNITED,  OR  GOT  HIS  FULL  REWARD  -  ALL  THAT  IS  READ  INTO  IT,  MADE  UP,  BY  HUMAN  MINDS.  THE  VERSE  SAYS  "DAVID"  THE  MAN,  THE  WHOLE  MAN,  WAS  NOT  ASCENDED  INTO  HEAVEN.  SURE  HIS  "SPIRIT"  WAS  BACK  WITH  GOD  WHO  GAVE  IT  [ECC. 12:9];  BUT  AS  BEFORE  STATED,  THE  SPIRIT  IN  MAN  DOES  NOT  CONTINUE  TO  WALK,  TALK,  SEE,  HEAR,  SPEAK,  PRAISE  GOD,  AFTER  DEATH.  IT  IS  THE  CD  OF  THE  CHARACTER  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  PERSON,  LESS  ALL  SINS [WASHED  AWAY  BY  THE  BLOOD  OF  CHRIST  AND  HIS  PRIESTLY  WORK  NOW  IN  HEAVEN  FOR  US].  DAVID  THE  FULL  PERSON  IS  WAITING  THE  RESURRECTION  WHEN  IMMORTAL  LIFE  WILL  BE  HIS.  AS  JESUS  SAID,  NO  MAN  HAS  ASCENDED  INTO  HEAVEN  BUT  HE  THAT  CAME  DOWN  FROM  HEAVEN [HIMSELF]  -  Keith Hunt)

The opposed texts show that the righteous are at death, in a certain sense with Christ, present with the Lord, in "disembodied and imperfect bliss" which is a foretaste of complete felicity to be awarded them at the last day.

(ALL  WRONG!  ALL  VERSES  ANSWERED  IN  FULL  IN  OTHER  STUDIES  ON  THIS  WEBSITE  -  Keith Hunt)

Together in one place. 

The Lord will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines: and to morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me.

1 Samuel 28:19

All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

Ecclesiates 3:20

In different places.

\

And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.. . . And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed.

Luke 16:23, 26

Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.

Acts 1:25

The first two passages teach that the good and bad, at their departure from this life, go alike into the intermediate state, but do not assert that their condition there is the same.

("INTERMEDIATE  STATE" ???  A  MAN  MADE  IDEA.  THE  BIBLE  SPEAKS  OF  NO  SUCH  PLACE.  THE  BIBLE  SPEAKS  OF  DEATH  AND  THE  RESURRECTION  -  JUST  THAT  SIMPLE.  DEATH  HAS  A  TRUTH  TO  IT  -  WHAT  IT  IS;  RESURRECTION  AS  A  TRUTH  TO  IT  -  WHAT  IT  IS.  ALL  VERSES  PRESENTED  ARE  EXPLAINED  IN  OTHER  STUDIES  AS  TO  THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  OF  THIS  SUBJECT  OF  DEATH  AND  RESURRECTION  -  Keith Hunt)

In Luke 16 we see the rich man and Lazarus both in the intermediate state, but one in misery, the other in happiness. In a certain sense, both went "to one place"; in another sense, they went to very different places.

(NOPE!  VERY  WRONG  IDEAS  ON  THIS  PARABLE  FROM  CATHOLICS  AND  PROTESTANTS.  THE  PARABLE  MEANS  WHAT  IT  SAYS  AND  SAYS  WHAT  IT  MEANS;  BUT  MOST  JUST  CANNOT  UNDERSTAND  IT  CORRECTLY  -  I  GIVE  YOU  THE  TRUTH  IN  A  STUDY  OF  IT  ON  THIS  WEBSITE  -  Keith Hunt)

Acts 1:25, teaches that Judas went to "his own place," to the punishment ippropriate to his conduct. Such is the view of Olshausen, DeWette, Livermore, Barnes, Hackett, Meyer, Alford, and other commentators.

In the dust and the grave.

And many of them that sleep in the

dust of the earth shall awake.

Daniel 12:2

All that are in the graves shall hear his voice.

John 5:28

Saints, with God.

We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:8

Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

1 Thessalonians 4:14

The quotation from Daniel refers to man in his physical organism and relations. As to his material, bodily form, in which he is cognizable by our senses, he "sleeps in the dust," at death.

(SLEEP  IN  THE  DUST  IS  AS  JESUS  SAID  ABOUT  LAZARUS…. HE  SLEEPS…. WHICH  HIS  DISCIPLES  FINALLY  REALIZED  HE  MEANT  DEATH.  HUMAN  DEATH  IS  SLEEP  -  AGAIN  JUST  THAT  SIMPLE  -  A  SLEEP  LIKE  I  HAD  LAST  NIGHT, NO  THOUGHTS,  NO  DREAMS,  NO  TALKING,  NO  HEARING,  NO  WALKING,  NO  THINKING,  NO  SEEING  -  Keith Hunt)

The literalistic exposition of the text from John leads to the conclusion that the unvaried dead are not to be raised. If the phraseology "all that are in the graves" is to be rigidly pressed, then it is a legitimate inference that those who sleep beneath the waves of ocean, those who were devoured by wild beasts, those who were burned at the stake, as not being "in the graves," will not "hear his voice and come forth."

Doubtless the expression is equivalent simply to "all the dead." 

(YES  IN  THIS  I  AGREE….. SIMPLY  "ALL  IN  THE  GRACES"  MEANS  "ALL  THE  DEAD"  -  Keith Hunt)

The last two texts imply that the souls of departed saints are with God, not necessarily in the highest rewards of heaven, but "in the bosom of Abraham," in paradise, joyfully awaiting those rewards.

(VERY  BAD  THEOLOGY  UNDERSTANDING  OF  THE  LAST  VERSES   WHEN  ALL  VERSES  ON  THE  SUBJECT  ARE  TAKEN  INTO  ACCOUNT.  THE  LAST  VERSES  GIVEN  I  COVER  IN  VARIOUS  STUDIES  CONCERNING  DEATH  -  Keith Hunt)

Resurrection

Dead to be raised.

Thy dead men shall live, together with

my dead body shall they arise.

Isaiah 26:19

Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush.

Luke 20:37

For since by man came death, by man came   also   the   resurrection   of  the dead... . The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible. 

                               

                                                                             1 Corinthians 15:21, 52

Not to be raised.

He that goeth down to the grave shall

come up no more.

Job 7:9

Man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.

Job 14:12

They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise.

Isaiah 26:14

They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beersheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.            

                                                                                               Amos 8:14

The quotations from Job express the opinion, or perhaps, the temporary doubts, of a good, but uninspired, man. They cannot counterbalance the express statements of inspiration.

(HERE  WE  ARE  AGAIN  BACK  TO  JOB  BE  UN-INSPIRED,  A  COPE-OUT  ARGUMENT.  THE  ONE  VERSE  JOB  IS  SPEAKING  IN  THE  GENERAL  STATEMENT  THAT  MAN  GOING  TO  THE  GRAVE  CANNOT  RAISE  HIMSELF;  AS  FAR  AS  HUMAN  ABILITY  GOES  MAN  HAS  NO  POWER  OVER  DEATH,  ONCE  HE  HAS  ENTERED  DEATH.  THE  SECOND  THOUGHT  OF  JOB  IS  AS  UNDER  GOD'S  HANDS;  MAN  WILL  BE  RAISED  OUT  OF  THEIR  SLEEP,  WILL  RISE  AGAIN….. WHEN  THE  HEAVENS  BE  NO  MORE  -  THE  END  OF  THIS  AGE  WHEN  THE  HEAVENS  WILL  SHAKE  AND  JESUS  WILL  RETURN  AT  THE  LAST  TRUMPT  SOUND.  JOB  KNEW  WHAT  PAUL  KNEW.  ALL  WERE  INSPIRED  -  Keith Hunt)

Isaiah asserts that certain foreign powers, the Assyrians, Babylonians, etc., who had oppressed the Israelites, were deceased and should not "rise"; that is, to resume their former arbitrary sway. Not the resurrection of individuals, but the restoration of fallen despotisms, is denied.

The text from Amos has no reference to the future world. It predicts simply the irretrievable overthrow of certain idolaters, in this world.

YES  I  AGREE !  Keith Hunt

Universal resurrection.

The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth.

John 5:28-29

A partial one.

And many of them that sleep in the

dust of the earth shall awake.

Daniel 12:2

According to Fuerst, the word translated "many" means likewise crowds or

masses.

Calvin: "The word many seems here clearly put for all." Stuart regards it as "equivalent to our word multitudes." Barnes: "There would be a vast or general resurrection from the dead; so much so that the mind would be interested mainly in the contemplation of the great hosts who would thus come forth."

(THE  CONTEXT  IS  TO  DO  WITH  THE  VERY  END  TIMES;  THE  GREATEST  TRIBULATION  THE  WORLD  HAS  EVER  SEEN. AND  THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THAT  TIME,  PLUS  THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  SECOND  RESURRECTION  OF  REVELATION  20.  AS  DANIEL  TALKS  ABOUT  THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  COMING  OF  THE  LORD,  THE  END  OF  THIS  AGE,  AT  THE  GREATEST  TIME  OF  TROUBLE  THE  WORLD  HAS  EVER  KNOWN,  HE  ALSO  ADDS  IN  THE  RESURRECTION  TO  SHAME  AND  EVERLASTING  CONTEMPT  -  THE  RESURRECTION   TO  THE  SECOND  DEATH  IN  THE  LAKE  OF  FIRE  [REV. 20]  -  Keith Hunt)

Jesus raised first.

That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead.

Acts 26:23

Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

                                                                 1 Corinthians 15:20

Others raised previously.

And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.

                                                               1  Kings 17:22

And they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.

                                                             2 Kings 13:21

And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother.

Luke 7:15

Romans 6:9 furnishes the solution of the difficulty. Jesus was the first who rose from the dead to die no more. All others who were raised, passed a second time through the gates of death. Over him, death "hath no more dominion." Hence, he is the "first-begotten of the dead," the first who was raised to immortal life.

(YES  I  AGREE  -  Keith Hunt)

Final Judgment

Ascribed to God.

Shall not the Judge of all the earth do

right?

Genesis 18:25

The heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself.

Psalm 1:6

To Christ.

For the Father judgeth no man, but

hath committed all judgment unto the

Son.

John 5:22

We shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ.

Romans 14:10

God will judge the world by Jesus Christ.²³⁵

²³⁵ Acts 17:31; Romans 2:16.

Disclaimed by Him.

Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no

man.

                                                                     John 8:15 

And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.

John 12:47

Attributed to Christ.

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.

                                                                 Matthew 25:31-32 

And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world; that they which see not might see; and that they which see, might be made blind.

                                                    John 9:39 

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

 2 Corinthians 5:10

These two classes of texts refer, the one to the second, the other to the first advent of our Lord. At his first coming, his object was to present himself, not as the Judge, but as the Savior, of men; not to condemn but to save them. When he comes the second time, it will be "in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel." 236

Yet the "judging of the world," involving the condemnation of the guilty, was not the ultimate object of Christ's mission, but rather a subordinate and incidental result of that mission.

Administered by God. 

God the Judge of all.

Hebrews 12:23 

And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God: and the books were opened.

Revelation 20:12

By men also.

Ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Matthew 19:28 

That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Luke 22:30 

But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.

1 Corinthians 2:15 

Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels?

1 Corinthians 6:2-3

²³⁶ 2 Thessalonians 1:8.

Barnes takes Matthew 19:28, as implying not so much an actual exercise of the power of passing judgment, as the honor attached to the office. The apostles should, at the last day, be relatively honored as judges are.

In 1 Corinthians 2:15, the Greek word employed is the same which in the preceding verse is translated "discerned." It has no reference to the final judgment, but denotes spiritual insight and discrimination in the present life.

As to the last citation, it may be taken simply as asserting that the saints, by their example, would "judge," i.e. condemn, sinful men and angels. This interpretation is corroborated by Matthew 12:41-42, which asserts that the Ninevites and the queen of Sheba should rise up in the judgment with that generation and "condemn" it; that is, by their example.

Chrysostom: "The saints shall judge the world by their exemplary judgment, because by their example the perfidiousness of the world shall be condemned."

Whately:237 "Not that he meant, or was ever understood to mean, that these persons would themselves take a share in the final judgment; but that their conduct would be a condemnation of the unbelieving generation, who rejected one greater than Jonas, and than Solomon." In another paragraph, the same writer strongly supports this explanation, and continues: "Any one who takes the right course, by so doing, condemns—in the New Testament language, 'judges'—those who, with equal opportunities, choose the wrong. This was the case with the Corinthian Christians (or saints); who, by embracing the gospel, judged (in this sense) their unbelieving neighbors, to whom it had been proposed, and who rejected it."

This interpretation relieves the saints of actual participation in the work of judging mankind.

Even if, with Alford and many critics, we feel constrained by the tenor of the passage, to admit this actual participation, still, since the power which the saints exercise is all derived from God, the work of judgment may properly be attributed wholly to him.

²³⁷ Future State, pp. 133-138.

Future Punishment—Its Nature

Continued misery.

So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire. 

                                                                                     Matthew 13:49-50

And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.

Matthew 24:51

And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 25:30

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night.

                                                                 Revelation 14:10-11

End of consciousness.

For, lo, thine enemies O Lord, for, lo,

thine enemies shall perish.

Psalm 92:9

And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness.

Psalm 94:23

All the wicked will he destroy.

Psalm 145:20

They that forsake the Lord shall be consumed.

Isaiah 1:28

The soul that sinneth, it shall die.

Ezekiel 18:20

Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction.

                                                                  2 Thessalonians 1:9

The day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

2 Peter 3:7

According to the received view, the texts, at the right, while implying ruin, irremediable overthrow, do not mean annihilation or extinction. Mortal-soulists, or "annihilationists" as they are commonly designated, interpret these texts, on the contrary, with a bald and rigid literalism, inferring from them the actual annihilation of the wicked. Mr. Hudson, 238 the ablest author of this class, observes: "The literal sense of the terms in question is manifestly the true one in most instances." Blain asserts that "death" is "extinction of being, soul and body."

Dr. Ives 239 says that death is "the cessation of existence," the first death being a temporary, the second a final cessation. These definitions are founded upon a literalistic, though not self-consistent, exegesis of scripture.

To show the irrelevancy and unsoundness of the arguments employed by writers of this class, the following examples of scripture usage are introduced. The reader will see, at a glance, to what absurdities literalistic interpretation, if consistently carried out, would lead its advocates.

The wicked perish.

So  let  all thine  enemies  perish,  O

Lord.

Judges 5:31

But the wicked shall perish.

                                                                                             Psalm 37:20

He that speaketh lies shall perish

                                                                                            Proverbs19:9

The righteous perish.

There is a just man that perisheth in his

righteousness.

Ecclesiastes 7:15

The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart.

Isaiah 57:1

The good man is perished out of the earth.

Micah 7:2

²³⁸ Debt and Grace, p. 182.

²³⁹ Bible Doctrine of the Soul, p. 42.

In all these cases, the same Hebrew term, "abadh," is used.

Now, if this term, in the first series of texts, necessarily implies that the wicked are to be annihilated, it is clear that, in the second, it implies, for the same reasons and with the same force, the annihilation of the righteous. Such is the logical conclusion to which literalism conducts us.

(NO  NOT  AT  ALL.  THE  WRITER  ASSUMES  THAT  THE  HEBREW [COULD  BE  GREEK]  MEANS  THE  SAME  IN  ALL  CONTEXTS.  THE  INSPIRED  WRITERS  THOUGHT  NO  SUCH  IDEA.  SO  THE  FIRST  VERSES  SHOW  UN-REPENTED  SINNERS [WHATEVER  THE  SIN - LIES  OR  ETC.]  SHALL  PERISH.  THE  SEARCHER  FOR  TRUTH  MUST  ASCERTAIN  FROM  ALL  THE  BILE  WHAT  "PERISH"  FOR  SINNERS  MEANS.  THE  SEARCHER  FOR  TRUTH  HAS  TO  FIND  IF  THE  BIBLE  TEACHES  A  PERSON  HAS  SOMETHING  OR  A  PERSON  WITHIN  A  HUMAN  PERSON  THAT  IS  "IMMORTAL"  AND  GOES  ON  LIVING,  THINKING,  SEEING,  SPEAKING,  TALKING,  WALKING,  ETC.  AFTER  PHYSICAL  DEATH.  IF  NOT  THEN  "PERISH"  MEANS  FOR  SINNERS  COMPLETE  REMOVAL  OF  LIFE  IN  THE  SECOND  DEATH.  IF  THEY  HAVE  AN  IMMORTAL  PERSON  INSIDE  OF  A  MORTAL  PERSON,  THEN  THE  HELL-FIRE  TORMENT  IS  THE  SINNERS  FATE,  AS  TAUGHT  BY  POPULAR  CHRISTIANITY.

FOR  THE  RIGHTEOUS  PERISHING.  LAST  VERSES  GIVEN.  THE  CONTEXT  FOR  "PERISH"  DOES  NOT  MEAN  THE  END  RESULT,  AS  IT  DID  FOR  SINNERS.  IT  CANNOT  MEAN  END  RESULT,  FOR  THE  RIGHTEOUS  CHRISTIAN  DOES  NOT  HAVE  AN  END  OF  LIFE  IN  THE  FINAL  RESULT,  FOR  THEY  LIVE  FOREVER.  SO  IT'S  IMPOSSIBLE  FOR  THE  RIGHTEOUS  SAINT  OF  GOD  TO  PERISH  IN  ETERNAL  DEATH  WITH  NO  LIFE  WHATSOEVER.  HENCE  THE  LOGICAL  COMMON  SENSE  UNDERSTANDING  IS:  THE  RIGHTEOUS  SAINT  OF  GOD  DIES  OR  PHYSICALLY  PERISHES  WHILE  LIVING  RIGHTEOUSLY,  SOMETIMES  YOUNG;  THEY  DIE  OR  PHYSICALLY  PERISH  WHILE  THOSE  AROUND  THEM  COULD  CARE  LESS;  THEY  DIE  OR  PHYSICALLY  PERISH  FROM  THE  EARTH.  THE  RIGHTEOUS  SAINT  OF  GOD  IS  NOT  AMMUNE  TO  PHYSICALLY  PERISHING  FROM  OFF  THE  EARTH  -  Keith Hunt)

Sinners annihilated.

Likewise the fool and the brutish person perish.

Psalm 49:10 (ll)²⁴⁰

For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish.

Psalm 73:27

A false witness shall perish.

Proverbs 21:28

Annihilated objects, existing. 

And with all lost things of thy brother's, which he hath lost, and thou hast found, shalt thou do likewise.

Deuteronomy 22:3

And the asses of Kish Saul's father were lost. . . . And as for thine asses that were lost three days ago, set not thy mind on them: for they are found. 

                                                                                     1 Samuel 9:3, 20

Here the same word "abadh" rendered "perish" in the first series, is translated "lost" in the second series. If now in the one case it implies the extinction of sinners, in the other it implies the extinction of the "lost things" and of Kish's asses. It would seem that the process of annihilation, in the latter cases, could hardly have been fatal to the existence of the objects mentioned, for they are afterwards "found."

(ONCE  MORE  THE  WRITER  MAKES  THE  MISTAKE  OF  THINKING  ALL  HEBREW  WORDS  MUST  MEAN  THE  SAME  THING  IN  EVER  CONTEXT.  JUST  NOT  TRUE  AT  ALL.  WE  HAVE  THE  ENGLISH  WORD  "PRESENT"  -  IN  ONE  CONTEXT  I  GIVE  YOU  A  PRESENT;  IN  ANOTHER  CONTEXT  I  AM  PRESENT  WITH  YOU  FOR  DINNER  AT  A  RESTAURANT.  A  SINNER  CAN  "PERISH"  IN  THIS  LIFE  LIKE  A  RIGHTEOUS  PERSON  CAN  -  THEY  DIE.  BUT  ALSO  A  SINNER  CAN  PERISH  IN  THE  SECOND  DEATH,  AND  HAVE  NO  LIFE  AT  ALL.  CERTAIN  OBJECTS,  THINGS,  ANIMALS,  CAN  "PERISH"  -  "BE  LOST"  IN  ANOTHER  CONTEXT  OF  "BEING  LOST."  WHICH  CONTEXT  SHOWS  THE  HEBREW  WORD  USED,  IS  BEING  USED  TO  MEAN  "LOST"  NOT  DEAD,  OR  PERISHING  FOR  ALL  ETERNITY  WITH  NO  LIFE.  SO  WORDS  [the  same  word] CAN  BE  USED  DIFFERENTLY  WITHIN  DIFFERENT  CONTEXTS  -  Keith Hunt)

Wicked cut off

For evildoers shall be cut off.... When

the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see

Psalm 37:9, 34

The Messiah cut off.

And after threescore and two weeks

shall Messiah be cut off, but not for

himself.

Daniel 9:26

In these three cases, "karath," is rendered "cut off." If the first texts teach the annihilation of the wicked, the last implies equally strongly that the Messiah  was annihilated!

(AGAIN,  CONTEXT  PLEASE,  CONTEXT.  IT  ALL  JUST  PROVES  WORDS  HAVE  A  CONTEXT.  THE  SAME  WORD  DOES  NOT  MEAN  THE  SAME  THING  IN  ALL  CONTEXTS,  JUST  AS  OUR  ENGLISH  WORD  "PRESENT"  DOES  NOT.  EVIL  DOERS  CAN  BE  CUT  OFF  -  DIE  -  IN  THIS  LIFETIME  AS  RIGHTEOUS  PEOPLE  CAN  BE,  IN  PHYSICAL  DEATH.  WHAT  HAPPENS  TO  THE  UN-REPENTED  SINNER/EVIL-DOER  IN  THE  END  AS  BEING  "CUT-OFF"  IS  TO  FIND  OUT  FROM  THE  REST  OF  THE  BIBLE,  A  DIFFERENT  CONTEXT  AND  A  DIFFERENT  SEARCH  OF  ANOTHER  TRUTH.  THE  MESSIAH  WAS  "CUT-OFF"  -  DIED  IN  PHYSICAL  DEATH;  THAT   IS  THE  CONTEXT  FOR  THE  WORD  IN  THIS  SITUATION,  AS  WE  KNOW  IT  CANNOT  POSSIBLY  BE  REFERRING  TO  END  OF  LIFE  PERIOD,  WITH  NO  LIFE  TO  FOLLOW,  AS  WE  KNOW  JESUS  IS  ALIVE  IN  HEAVEN  AT  THE  FATHER'S  RIGHT  HAND  -  Keith Hunt)

Wicked destroyed.

Thou shaft destroy them that speak

leasing.

Psalm 5:6

All the wicked will he destroy.

Psalm 145:20

And he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

Isaiah 13:9

Persons destroyed, yet alive.

He hath destroyed me on every side.

Job 19:10

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

Hosea4:6

O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.

Hosea 13:9

If the Hebrew words, and their English equivalent "destroy," used in these cases, imply extinction or termination of conscious existence, we have, in the last citation, a people who, although they had been annihilated, were yet in a hopeful condition.

An odd kind of "annihilation" that must be, which is still susceptible of relief! The sense clearly is, "Thou hast brought great calamities upon thyself, but in me is thine help."

(OH  THE  SILLY  AND  ILLOGICAL  THINKING  OF  MEN.  THIS  ALL  PROVES  THAT  "DESTROY"  DOES  NOT  MEAN  THE  SAME  IN  EVERY  CONTEXT.  THE  "DESTROY"  OF  THE  WICKED,  THE  SINNER,  HAS  TO  FIRST  BE  THE  CONTEXT…. THIS  LIFE,  OR  THE  END  RESULT  OF  THE SINNER;  PROVED  BY  THE  REST  OF  THE  BIBLE  ON  THE  SUBJECT.  THEN  IN  THE  LAST  VERSES  IT  IS  OBVIOUS  "DESTROY"  DOES  NOT  MEAN  THE  SAME  IN  THOSE  CONTEXT  VERSES,  BUT  HAS  TO  DO  WITH  TROUBLES  ON  EVERY  SIDE  FOR  PEOPLE  OR  PEOPLES,  IN  CERTAIN  SITUATIONS.  CONTEXT,  CONTEXT,  FOR  THE  USE  OF  WORDS  -  Keith Hunt)

Sinners destroyed.

But the transgressors shall be destroyed

together.

Psalm 37:38

If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.

1 Corinthians 3:17

Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction.

                                                                  2 Thessalonians 1:9

Inanimate objects destroyed.

And Pharaoh's servants said unto him,

. . . Knowest thou not yet that Egypt is

destroyed?

Exodus 10:7

Am I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.

2 Kings 18:25

Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed; . . . take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.

Jeremiah 51:8

And shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

Revelation 11:18

It need not be said that in these cases, the literalistic interpretation of the terms "destroy" and "destruction" would land us in the grossest exegetical absurdities.241

(AGAIN  IT  IS  CONTEXT!!  OF  COURSE  THE  LATTER  VERSES  DID  NOT  MEAN  ANYTHING  TO  DO  WITH  ANY  FINAL  RESULT  IN  THE  CONTEXT  OF  ETERNITY.  BUT  SINNERS  BEING  DESTROYED  COULD  HAVE  TO  DO  WITH  END  RESULT.  SO  THE  SEARCHER  FOR  TRUTH  HAS  TO  SEARCH  THE  BIBLE  TO  FIND  WHAT  THE  END  RESULT  WILL  BE  FOR  SINNERS  THAT  WILL  FACE  DESTRUCTION.  PROVING  ONCE  MORE  WORDS  HAVE  A  CONTEXT  AND  A  MEANING  WITHIN  THAT  CONTEXT  -  Keith Hunt)

Evil doers consumed.

Let the sinners be consumed out of the

earth.

Psalm 104:35

Things without life consumed. 

There shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger, and great hailstones in my fury to consume it. So will I break down the wall.

Ezekiel 13:13-14

(CONTEXT  AGAIN  MUST  BE  USED  TO  SEE  HOW  A  WORD  IS  BEING  USED  WITHIN  THAT  CONTEXT  OF  WHERE  IT  IS  USED,  EITHER  WITH  PRESENT  PHYSICAL  WORLD  OR  ETERNAL USE. 

Keith Hunt)

²⁴¹ An example of similar kind is furnished by the literalistic exposition of Malachi 4:1-3. The prophet declares that the wicked shall be burned, and adds that they shall "be ashes" (not "as ashes"), under the feet of the righteous. The folly of taking such language literally need not be pointed out.

(JUST  MINUTE  NOW,  WHAT  DO  YOU  DEFINE  AS  "ASHES"?  I  THINK  OF  ASHES  AS  ANYTHING  BURNED  UP.  MOST  THINGS  ARE  "WATER"  OUR  BODY  IS  THEY  SAY  70  PERCENT  WATER,  AND  SO  ON.  A  TREE  IS  EX  PERCENT  WATER,  AS  IS  A  DOG,  OR  HORSE.  WHEN  ANY  OF  THEM  ARE  FULLY  BURNT  UP,  BURNT  TO  A  CRISP  AS  WE  SAY,  I  DOUBT  YOU  CAN  TELL  THE  ASHES  LEFT,  AS  BEING  A  TREE,  OR  DOG,  OR  HORSE,  OR  HUMAN.  SO  THE  WICKED  WILL  ONE  DAY  BE  "ASHES"  FULLY  BURNT  TO  A  CRISP  -  Keith Hunt)

They that forsake the Lord shall be consumed.

Isaiah 1:28

And the scorner is consumed.

Isaiah 29:20

I have heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to consume.

Ezekiel 35:12

Of course, a wall "consumed" by "hailstones," and mountains "consumed" by men, would hardly be understood as having ceased to exist.

(AGAIN  JUST  PROVING  HOW  THE  CONTEXT  OF  A  WORD  IS  USED,  LIKE  OUR  ENGLISH  WORD  "PRESENT"  -  Keith Hunt)

Wicked "was not."

Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not:

yea, I sought him, but he could not be

found.

Psalm 37:36

Enoch "was not. "

And Enoch walked with God: and he

was not; for God took him.

Genesis 5:24

The Hebrew for "was not," is exactly the same in these two cases. Now if the first passage teaches the extinction of the wicked, the second teaches that Enoch became extinct. Yet so far from this, we know that he was "translated that he should not see death."242

(ONCE  MORE  CONTEXT  CONTEXT!  WORDS  MEAN  DIFFERENT  MEANINGS  WITHIN  A  CONTEXT  -  Keith Hunt)

Wicked devoured.

And fire came down from God out of

heaven, and devoured them.

Revelation 20:9

Pious devoured.

If a man bring you into bondage, if a

man devour you.

                                                                  2 Corinthians 11:20

But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

Galatians 5:15

In these three instances, kindred words of equal intensity are employed. The inference is not difficult.

(SURE  INTENSITY….. BUT  WHAT  KIND  OF  INTENSITY?  OBVIOUSLY  THE  INTENSITY  OF  REV. 20:9  WAS  DIFFERENT [physically  burnt  up]  THAN  THE  DEVOUR  OF  INTENSITY  OF  THE  OTHER  TWO  VERSES.  IT  IS  AGAIN  CONTEXT  PLEASE  -  Keith Hunt)

God's adversaries devoured.

Judgment and fiery indignation, which

shall devour the adversaries.

Hebrews 10:27

Widows' houses devoured.

Beware of the scribes,. . . which devour

widows' houses.

Mark 12:38, 40

The reader will observe that the Greek verb of the first text occurs in the second in a strengthened form. 243 So that, if the first text teaches the annihilation of the wicked, the second teaches that "widows' houses" were doubly annihilated by the scribes.

(THE  CONTEXT  FOR  THE  FIRST  IS  STRONG  ENOUGH  TO  KILL  PEOPLE,  BURN  THEM  UP.  THE  CONTEXT  FOR  THE  SECOND  IS  A  DOUBLE  DEVOUR  OF  THE  TERRIBLE  WAY  THE  SCRIBES  TREATED  SOME  PEOPLE.  IT  IS  NOT  A  DEVOUR  OF  FIRE  TO  THE  PHYSICAL  WHICH  BURNS  AND  THEN  ITS  OVER,  IN  A  MATTER  OF  A  FEW  MINUTES;  BUT  THE  HARSHER,  STRONGER  "DEVOUR"  THE  SCRIBES  USED,  WOULD  MENTALLY,  EMOTIONALLY,  TO  A  DEGREE  ALSO  PHYSICAL [EMOTIONS  CAN  CAUSE  PHYSICAL  PAIN],  GO  ON  FOR  A  MUCH  LONGER  TIME,  EVEN  YEARS  UPON  THE  PEOPLE  THEY  EFFECTED;  HENCE  WITHIN  A  CONTEXT  A  STRONGER  DEVOUR,  AS  THE  WORD  USED  WITHIN  A  CERTAIN  CONTEXT  -  Keith Hunt)

Sinners devoured.

But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be

devoured with the sword.

Isaiah 1:20

Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured.

Jeremiah 30:16

A forest devoured persons. 

For the battle was there scattered over the face of all the country: and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.

2 Samuel 18:8

In all these passages, the same Hebrew verb "akal" is used. In the latter instance, literalism, it need not be remarked, would make nonsense of the narrative. Yet there is as much reason for a literal explication of the latter text as of the two former texts.

(ALL  THREE  VERSES  ARE  A  "DEVOUR"  TO  PHYSICAL  DEATH,  THAT  SHOULD  BE  OBVIOUS  TO  ALL  COMMON  SENSE  READERS. THE  CONTEXT  USED  FOR  THE  WORD  DEVOUR  IN  THOSE  CONTEXTS  SHOULD  IT  IS  THE  PHYSICAL  BEING  TALKED  ABOUT  -  Keith Hunt)

Wicked torn and broken.

Thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed

in pieces the enemy.

Exodus 15:6

The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces.

1 Samuel 2:10

Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

Psalm 2:9

Consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces.

Psalm 50:22

Righteous likewise.

He teareth me in his wrath; ... he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces; ... he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground. He breaketh me with breach upon breach.

Job 16:9,12-14

They break in pieces thy people, O Lord.

Psalm 94:5

Here language equally strong and intense is applied to the calamities befalling the righteous and the wicked. If in the former case extinction of existence is intended, why not in the latter case?

(WELL  THE  FORMER  VERSES  COULD  BE  REFERRING  TO  THIS  LIFE,  AND  HOW  GOD  CAN  DEAL  WITH  PEOPLE.  PS. 2:9  IS  A PROPHECY  WHEN  THE  MESSIAH  COMES  AGAIN  TO  RULE  ALL  NATIONS,  SEE  THE  CONTEXT.  IF  ANY  REFER  TO  THE  FINAL  RESULT  OF  THE  WICKED,  THEY  CERTAINLY  ARE  GOING  TO  BE  BROKEN  IN  THE  LAKE  OF  FIRE  AND  THE  SECOND  DEATH.  THE  LATTER  VERSES  ARE  ALSO  CLEARLY  IN  THE  CONTEXT  OF  THIS  PHYSICAL  LIFE  AND  WHAT  CAN  HAPPEN  EVEN  TO  GOD'S  PEOPLE  AT  TIMES  -  Keith Hunt)

Wicked broken in pieces.

Associate yourselves, O ye people, and

ye shall be broken in pieces.

Isaiah 8:9

Objects broken, yet still existing.

The sacrifices of God are a broken

spirit: a broken and a contrite heart.

Psalm 51:17

And shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.

Daniel 7:23

To show the complete absurdity of insisting upon the literal interpretation of these and similar expressions, it need only be mentioned that Psalm 51:17, "A broken and a contrite heart," is, when rendered literally, "a heart broken in pieces and shivered."244

²⁴⁴ Professor Bartlett, "Life and Death Eternal," p.⁹⁸

(OBVIOUSLY  "BROKEN"  IN  IS.8:9  IS  IN  THIS  PHYSICAL  LIFE,  A  CONTEXT.  BROKEN  AS  USED  IN  PS. 51:17  AND  DAN. 7:23  IS  IN  ANOTHER  CONTEXT  ENTIRELY.  WORDS  HAVING  DIFFERENT  MEANS  IN  ACTUAL  APPLICATIONS.  THE  FIRST  IS  LITERAL  DEATH  AND  INJURY  ON  ISRAEL'S  ENEMIES.  THE  LATTER  ONE  IS  ALSO  PHYSICAL  DESTRUCTION  OF  SORTS  UPON  EARTH.  THE  PS. 51:7  IS  ANOTHER  USE  OF  THE  SAME  WORDS,  WHICH  AGAIN  OBVIOUSLY  DOES  NOT  CARRY  THE  SAME  MEANING  AS  USED  IN  THE  CONTEXT  OF  PHYSICAL  DESTRUCTION.  AND  NONE  OF  THESE  VERSES  HAVE  ANYTHING  TO  DO  WITH  THE  END  RESULT  OF  THE  UN-REPENTED  SINNERS  -  Keith Hunt)

Wicked blotted out.

And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth: both man and beast, and the creeping thing.

Genesis 6:7

Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.

Exodus 32:33

Let them be blotted out of the book of the living.

Psalm 69:28 (29)

Things blotted out yet existing.

I will utterly put out the remembrance

of Amalek from under heaven.

Exodus 17:14

Blot out all mine iniquities.

Psalm 51:9 (11)

I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions.

Isaiah 44:22

Blotting    out    the    handwriting    of ordinances that was against us.

Colossians 2:14

In all the cases cited here from the Old Testament the expressions "destroy," "blotted out," "utterly put out," are translations of the Hebrew term "machah."

But this word does not imply annihilation; for when "sins" are "blotted out" they are not annihilated. A fact, a deed, is not susceptible of annihilation. It may be forgiven, perchance forgotten, but not recalled or undone.

When the "ordinances" of the Mosaic law were "blotted out," they did not cease to exist; they merely became inoperative. Nor does the declaration that God would "utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek" imply the extinction of that remembrance; for the declaration itself perpetuates that remembrance.

(ONCE  MORE  IT  IS  CONTEXT,  AND  CONTEXT.  THE  FIRST  VERSE  IS  PHYSICAL.  THE  SECOND  VERSE  IS  EXTINCTION  FROM  GOD'S  BOOK.  IF  YOU  ARE  NOT  IN  IT,  YOU  ARE  EXTINCT  FROM  IT.  WHAT  THAT  MEANS  YOU'LL  HAVE  TO  SEARCH  THE  REST  OF  THE  BIBLE  TO  FIND  THE  END  RESULT  ON  THOSE  EXTINCT  FROM  GOD'S  BOOK.  SAME  GOES  FOR  PS. 69:28 (29).  AMALEK  BLOTTING  HAS  A  CONTEXT  ALSO.  THE  LAST  THREE  VERSES  ARE  AN  EXTINCTION;  TO  THINK  WE  ARE  UNDER  GRACE,  SINS  NO  MORE  REMEMBERED  AS  GOD  SAYS,  WASHED  AWAY  IN  JESUS'  BLOOD,  REMOVED  AS  FAR  AS  THE  EAST  IS  FROM  THE  WEST [WHEN  DOES  THAT  BEGIN  OR  END],  AND  YET  SOMEHOW  HANGS  ON,  HANGS  AROUND  FOR  ALL  ETERNITY…… THAT  IS  CRAZY  THEOLOGY,  AND  THE  ATHEISTS  WOULD  AGAIN  LAUGH  AT  SUCH  THEOLOGY  AND  WANT  NOTHING  TO  DO  WITH  IT.  WHEN  GOD  FORGIVES  SINS  THROUGH  THE  BLOOD  OF  CHRIST,  PUTS  US  UNDER  HIS  GRACE,  THOSE  SINS  ARE  GONE,  THEY  BECOME  EXTINCT.  SALVATION  IS  JUST  THAT  SIMPLE…. REPENT,  SINS  BECOME  EXTINCT  -  Keith Hunt)

Wicked have an end.

Amalek was the first of the nations; but his latter end shall be that he perish for ever.

Numbers 24:20

The end of the wicked shall be cut off. 

                                                                                          Psalm 37:38

Whose end is destruction.

Philippians 3:19

The righteous also.

Let me die the death of the righteous,

and let my last end be like his!

Numbers 23:10

So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning.

Job 42:12

For the end of that man is peace.

Psalm 37:37

Does the word "end" necessarily imply termination of being? If so, the fate of the righteous would not be an enviable one.

(LIKE  MANY  OTHER  WORDS  "END"  ALSO  HAS  A  CONTEXT,  AND  IT'S  MEANING  WILL  VARY  WITHIN  ANY  CONTEXT.  IF  YOU  WANT  TO  KNOW  THE  END  OF  THE  SINNER  AND  WICKED,  YOU  HAVE  TO  SEARCH  THE  WHOLE  BIBLE  TO  DISCOVER  THAT  TRUTH;  WHICH  YES   WILL  BE  DISCOVERING  IF  MANKIND  WAS  CREATED  WITH  SOME  INVISIBLE  PERSON  INSIDE  THE  PHYSICAL  PERSON,  THAT  CONTINUES  TO  LIVE  ON  AFTER  PHYSICAL  DEATH,  THINKING,  SPEAKING,  TALKING,  WALKING,  HEARING,  PRAISING  GOD [IF  IN  HEAVEN]  AND  WELL  THOSE  NOT  IN  HEAVEN….. PAINFULLY  MOURNING  IN  EVER-BURNING  HELL-FIRE,  OR  HANGING  OUT  IN  A  PURGATORY  LIMBO,  WAITING  FOR  SOMEONE  TO  PRAY  THEM  INTO  HEAVEN  OR  GIVE  MONEY  TO  THE  CHURCH  TO  MOVE  THEM  INTO  HEAVEN.  NO  WONDER  THE  ATHEISTS  LAUGH  AT  SUCH  THEOLOGY,  AND  WANT  NOTHING  TO  DO  WITH  THE  BIBLE  -  Keith Hunt)

Wicked die; are dead.

And you hath he quickened, who were

dead in trespasses and sins.

Ephesians2:1

But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.

1 Timothy 5:6

I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.

Revelation 3:1

Righteous die, are dead.

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to

be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto

God.

Romans 6:11

I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

                                                                 

                                                                  1 Corinthians 15:31

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

Colossians 3:3

From these texts it is perfectly clear that persons may "die," and be "dead," yet all the while be physically alive and conscious. It follows that the phrase "living death," though scouted by certain writers, conveys, nevertheless, a perfectly reasonable and scriptural idea.

We have now passed rapidly in review the strongest, and apparently the most conclusive, proof-texts 245 adduced by annihilationists, and we reach the following results:

Those persons who undertake to build a doctrine upon the figures of poetry and of Oriental idiom are expending their labor just as wisely as they would be in endeavoring to make a pyramid stand upon its apex. Their foundation is inadequate, and their efforts nugatory.

(FIGURES  OF  POETRY  OR  SO-CALLED  ORIENTAL  IDIOMS  ARE  FAR  FROM  BEING  USED  WHEN  INSPIRED  WRITERS  OF  THE  BOOKS  OF  THE  BIBLE,  TOLD  IS  IN  PLAIN  CLEAR  WORDS,  THE  STATE  OF  THE  DEAD.  ONLY  THOSE  WHO  TEACH  GOING  TO  HEAVEN  FOR  CHRISTIANS  AT  DEATH,  USE  SUCH  WEAK  AND  SILLY  ARGUMENTS.  THEN  IN  SO  HOLDING  THEY  MUST  ALSO  CONTINUE  TO  HOLD  THE  EVER  BURNING  HELL-FIRE,  FOR  SINNERS,  LIVING  IN  SOME  KIND  OF  MOURNING  IN  THE  FIRES  OF  HELL  FOR  ALL  ETERNITY.  NO  WONDER  ALL  CHURCHES  ARE  ON  THE  DECLINE;  ALL  EXCEPT  THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  THE  TRUE  SABBATH  KEEPING  CHURCHES  OF  GOD.  THE  FORMER  IS  AN  INSTRUMENT  SATAN  THE  DEVIL  LIKE  TO  USE,  ESPECIALLY  USE,  SO  IT  INCREASES  -  Keith Hunt)

As to the Hebrew terms rendered in our version, "consume," "cut off," "die," "destroy," "devour," "perish," and the like, neither in the original terms, nor in their English equivalents, nor in the connection in which they stand, is there inherent force or aught else which necessitates, or even warrants, the interpretation of them as implying annihilation, extinction of consciousness, or cessation of existence.

(OH  YES  INDEED,  WITHIN  CERTAIN  CONTEXT,  WHICH  AGAIN  MEANS  THE  SEARCHER  FOR  TRUTH  HAS  TO  FIND  IN  THE  REST  OF  THE  BIBLE,  AS  TO  THE  NATURE  OF  MANKIND;  CREATED  IMMORTAL [TO  CONTINUE  LIVING, THINKING, HEARING, SPEAKING, ACTING, SEEING]  TO  LIVE  ON  EITHER  IN  HEAVEN  OR  HELL-FIRE  FOR  ALL  ETERNITY  -  Keith Hunt)

On the literalistic hypothesis these words prove too much, and so prove nothing. For they would prove that the Messiah was annihilated at his crucifixion; that the righteous are annihilated at death; that after the Israelites had annihilated themselves there was still "help" for them; with all manner of similar absurdities.

(NOPE  NOT  AT  ALL,  FOR  EACH  TIME  SUCH  WORDS  ARE  USED  THERE  IS  A  CONTEXT  AS  TO   HOW  IT  IS  BEING  USED  -  Keith Hunt)

Instruments

Shame and disgrace.

Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let tbem be put to shame.

Psalm 83:17

Some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Daniel 12:2

Friend, how earnest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

Matthew 22:12

Of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

Mark 8:38

A whirlwind.

A whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.

Jeremiah 23:19

For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.

Hosea 8:7

These and the subsequent texts illustrate different aspects or relations of the punishment which will overtake the wicked.

A worm.

Where their worm dieth not, and the

fire is not quenched.

                                                               Mark 9:44 (also 46, 48)

A tempest

Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest.

Psalm 11:6

So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm. 

                                                                                             Psalm 83:15

Darkness.

But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there

shall  be  weeping  and  gnashing   of teeth.  

                                                                                           Matthew 8:12 

Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness.

Matthew 22:13

And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness.

Matthew 25:30

Fire.

\

The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire.

Matthew 13:41-42

Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

Matthew 25:41

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Revelation 20:15

"Darkness" is, in one respect, and "fire" in another respect, a fit emblem of the punishment.

Dr. J. P. Thompson:246 "The laws of language require us to understand from these very metaphors, that the future state of the ungodly will be one of conscious and irremediable misery—the 'darkness' of banishment from God, the 'unquenchable fires' of memory, the 'undying worm' of remorse—a state of mental anguish prefigured by physical emblems."

It seems impossible to weigh carefully the foregoing words of scripture, without the resulting conviction that the ruin and overthrow which are threatened to the incorrigible, will be swift, terrible, and remediless.

(ONCE  AGAIN  THE  CATHOLICS  AND  PROTESTANTS  JUST  CAN'T  SEE  THE  TRUTH  OF  LIGHT,  BUT  HAVE  TO  STAY  WITH  THIS  BURNING,  ANGUISHING,  PHYSICAL  AND  MENTAL  PAIN  FOR  LOST  SINNERS,  FOR  ALL  ETERNITY  DOCTRINE.  THIS  IS  PART  OF  WHY  THE  BIBLE  HAS  BECOME  AS  "NOTHING"  TO  THE  MAJORITY  OF  THE  WESTERN  WORLD,  AND  TO  THE  YOUNGER  GENERATION.  RIGHTLY  SO  THEY  CANNOT  UNDERSTAND  A  GOD  THAT  WOULD  PUNISH  PEOPLE  LITERALLY  FOR  ALL  ETERNITY  _  Keith Hunt)

Degrees

Same for all.

And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house, saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.

Matthew 20:9-12

Different gradations. 

It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.

Matthew 10:15

Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

Matthew 25:41

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Revelation 20:15

It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you.

Matthew 11:22

And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes.

Luke 12:47-48

Who will render to every man according to his deeds.

Romans 2:6

That every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. 

                                                                                    2 Corinthians 5:10

And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

Revelation 20:13

The first series of passages sets forth the general fact of future awards, without going into details; the second specifies the degrees or differences of retribution. Some have supposed that the parable in Matthew 20 is designed to teach "the equality of rewards," and, by implication, that of punishments. Trench interprets it better, as intended to "rebuke the spirit of self-exalting comparison of ourselves with others, and to emphasize the fact that the saints' reward is to be of grace, not of works." Alford takes a similar view.

May not, however, the teaching of the parable be simply this: In cases where the opportunity to act is wanting, God rewards the disposition in the same manner as he would have done the action itself

The absolute equality of rewards or of punishments is not implied in this parable. As Whately 247 observes: "We may be sure there will be no want of mansions, or of suitable variety of mansions, either in the place of reward or of punishment."

Duration

Unending.

Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

Matthew 3:12

Will terminate.

I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.

Isaiah 45:23

²⁴⁷ Future State, p. 171.

Whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.

Matthew 12:32

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Matthew 25:46

But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.²⁴⁸

Mark 3:29

He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

John 3:36

And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night.

                                                                 Revelation 14:10-11

And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Revelation 20:10

And thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.

Matthew 5:25-26

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, . . . and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Philippians 2:10-11

That the texts fairly imply the endless duration of future punishment, we have no doubt. The question is: Do those at the right militate against the doctrine? Such expressions as "unquenchable 249 fire," "not forgiven, neither

²⁴⁸ Griesbach, Lachmann, Alford, Tregelles, Tischendorf, and Meyer apparently, read "eternal sin.'This reading, sustained as it is by the best critical authorities, affords a very strong incidental proof of the endless duration of future punishment. Eternal sin is eternal punishment. In this view, Mark 3:29 is one of the most fearfully significant passages in the New Testament. "Eternal sin!" Who can fathom the meaning of these words?

²⁴⁹ The Greek term is defined by Liddell and Scott thus: "Unquenched, inextinguishable, endless, ceaseless." Upon this point annlhilationist writers assert that the fire will be "unquenchable" until it has consumed the chaff and will then go out, of itself. We refrain from comment. The argument derived by annihilationists from Matthew 3:12, is peculiarly suicidal. From the fact that the wicked are symbolized by "chaff," it is inferred that they will be literally burned to ashes, as chaff is. An equally valid inference from the fact that the righteous are represented by "wheat," would be that they are stored up in the garner, to be disposed of exactly as wheat is!

in this world, neither in the world to come," "everlasting punishment,"250 "in danger of eternal sin," the "wrath of God abideth on him," "the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever," strongly imply unending misery. Such is their fair, legitimate meaning. It may be added, as the subjoined note evinces, that, if these expressions do not legitimately convey this idea, then it would seem impossible to prove from the scriptures the eternity of anything; impossible, also, to express in the Greek language the notion itself of endless duration.

(THE  BIBLE  IS  VERY  PLAIN  ON  THE  NATURE  OF  MANKIND;  IT  IS  VERY  CLEAR  ON  THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  UN-REPENTANT  SINNERS,  A  SECOND  DEATH  IN  THE  LAKE  OF  FIRE,  FROM  WHICH  THERE  IS  NO  RESURRECTION.  THE  BIBLE  IS  ALSO  CLEAR  ON  THE  RESURRECTION  TO  IMMORTAL  LIFE  OF  GOD'S  SAINTS,  AND  TO  THEIR  RECEIVING  A  REWARD  FOR  WHAT  THEY  DID  WITH  WHAT  THEY  WERE GIVEN.  YES  THE  PUNISHMENT  FOR  SINNERS  WILL  BE  FOR  ETERNITY.  THEY  WILL  BURN  UP  AND  BE  ASHES,  BURN  UP  IN  THE  LAKE  OF  FIRE  AND  BE  EXTINCT  FOR  ALL  ETERNITY.  WHILE  THE  RIGHTEOUS,  THOSE  INHERITING  SALVATION  AND  IMMORTALITY,  WILL  LIVE  IN  GLORY  WITH  THE  FATHER  AND  HIS  SON  CHRIST  JESUS  FOR  ALL  ETERNITY,  ON  A  NEW  EARTH  PLANET,  AS  FORETOLD  IN  REVELATION  21,  22.  THESE  TRUTH  CAN  BE  FOUND;  THEY  ARE  EXPOUNDED  FOR  YOU  IN  MANY  STUDIES  ON  THIS  WEBSITE  -  Keith Hunt)

The quotations from Isaiah and Philippians simply assert that all men shall, sooner or later, acknowledge the sovereignty of God. But while some do this in love, others may do it in wrath and terror. The subjugation of rebels neither invariably removes their inward hostility, nor transforms them into loyal subjects.

The text from Matthew 5 is a caution against litigation, an exhortation to settle difficulties previous to legal process, whenever practicable. There is probably in this place no direct reference to future punishment.\

Salvation—Extent

All Israel saved.

And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.

Romans 11:26

Only a portion saved.

But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there

shall  be  weeping   and  gnashing  of teeth.

Matthew 8:12

²⁵⁰ In Matthew 25:46, the same Greek adjective, akbvioc,, is applied both to "punishment" and to "life." Hence it seems a reasonable inference that the "punishment," and the life are of parallel duration. As to the words akbv and akbvioc;, which, in their various modifications and combinations, are, in our version, rendered "eternal," "everlasting," "forever," "forever and ever," a very interesting discussion may be found in Professor Stuart's Essay on Future Punishment, pp. 56, 66 (new edition). He, following Knapp's Greek text, finds akbv ninety-four times in the New Testament. In fifty-five of these instances, he says the word "certainly means an unlimited period of duration either future or past, ever, always." If we include those cases in which the term refers to future punishment, and to the dominion of the Messiah, we have, says Stuart, sixty-four cases out of ninety-four in which the word means "unlimited period, boundless duration." The same author finds akbv sixty-six times. Of these, fifty-one are used in relation to the happiness of the righteous; two, in relation to God or his glory; six are of a miscellaneous nature, but the meaning in them all is quite clear; and seven relate to the subject of future punishment. [It should be added that Briider's Concordance, latest edition, gives akbv one hundred and six times, and akbvioc; seventy-one times. Probably, however, the proportion remains the same]. In view of these facts, we may conclude with Professor Stuart, that, if these expressions do not fairly imply the eternity of future punishment, "then the scriptures do not decide that God is eternal, nor that the happiness of the righteous is without end, nor that his covenant of grace will always remain, a conclusion which would forever blast the hopes of Christians, and shroud in more than midnight darkness all the glories of the gospel."

(SURE  THE  PUNISHMENT  IS  ETERNAL,  FOREVER.  THE  QUESTION  IS  FOR  THE  RESEARCHER  OF  TRUTH,  WHAT  IS  THAT  PUNISHMENT?  IT  IS  THE  CATHOLIC  AND  PROTESTANT  IDEA  OF  MISERY  IN  HELL-FIRE,  OR  BURNING  UP  AND  BECOMING  EXTINCT  BY  BEING  THROWN  INTO  THE  LAKE  OF  FIRE?  STUDIES  ON  THIS  WEBSITE  PROVE  THE  LATTER  IS  TRUE,  AND  THE  CATHOLICS  AND  PROTESTANTS  ARE  WRONG  -  Keith Hunt ) 

Alford, De Wette, Meyer, Tholuck, and others take the first text as implying a "future national restoration of Israel to God's favor." Or it may be taken as referring to the spiritual Israel; for "he is a Jew which is one inwardly" 251 All of the true Israel will be saved, while many of the nominal will perish.

(IT  IS  A  "GENERAL  STATEMENT"  ONLY;  TIME  WILL  TELL  IF  EVERY  LAST  SINGLE  PERSON  IN  ISRAEL  WILL  BE  IN  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD.  AND  ONLY  TIME  WILL  TELL  HOW  MANY  WILL  END  UP  IN  THE  LAKE  OF  FIRE  -  Keith Hunt)

All men saved.

Until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets.

Acts 3:21

For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

Romans 11:32

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

                                                                  1 Corinthians 15:22

God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

                                                                                      1 Timothy 2:3-4 

The living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

1 Timothy 4:10

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.

Titus 2:11

Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

2 Peter 3:9

Some not saved.

The wicked shall be turned into hell,

and all the nations that forget God.

Psalm 9:17

Salvation is far from the wicked.

Psalm 119:155

The wicked is driven away in his wickedness.

Proverbs 14:32

There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.

Isaiah 57:21

All the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts.

Malachi 4:1

The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire.

Matthew 13:41-42

And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.

Acts 13:48

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. 

                                                                                         Revelation 21:8

Let us examine the texts at the left, and ascertain whether they teach the actual salvation of all mankind. Hackett, with Meyer and De Wette, interprets the first citation of the restoration of all things to a "state of primeval order, purity, and happiness, such as will exist for those who have part in the kingdom of Christ at his second coming."

251 Romans 2:29.

Murdock's version of the Syriac gives the passage a different turn, thus: "Until the completion of the times of those things which God hath spoken." The Arabic has, "Until the times which establish the perfection or completion of all the predictions of the prophets."

Adam Clarke, Barnes, Dr. Jonathan Edwards, 252 and others concur in this latter explanation. Obviously, neither this nor the former one implies the salvation of all men.

On Romans 11:32 Alford says that it brings to view Gods act, and not man's. The ultimate difference between the "all men" shut up under disobedience and the "all men" upon whom mercy is shown, lies in the fact that by some men this mercy is not accepted, and so they become self-excluded from the salvation of God.

The text from 1 Corinthians refers simply to physical death and resurrection. "As Adam caused the physical death of all men, so Christ will effect the resurrection of all." This is the view of Alford, Barnes, De Wette, Meyer, and others.

The citations from 1 Timothy 2 and 2 Peter assert the "wish" or "will" of God that all men should be saved. But this by no means proves that all will be saved. For some things which would be pleasing to God, agreeable to his will, do not take place. For example, he "now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." 253 Need it be said that universal obedience to this command, though it would be agreeable to the divine will, does not exist? Hence, the texts in question, while setting forth the benevolent "wish" or "will" of God, do not intimate that all men will comply with that "will."

First Timothy 4:10 terms God "the Saviour of all men." He is such, in that he preserves their lives, and grants them the day and means of grace.

Titus 2:11 asserts, indeed, that the grace of God bringeth, proffereth, salvation to all men, but does not imply that this "salvation" is forced upon them.

It is clear that none of the foregoing texts, fairly interpreted, support the doctrine of universal salvation.

Earth—Destruction

Indestructible.

The earth which he hath established for ever.

Psalm 78:69

Who laid the  foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever. 

            

                                                                                             Psalm 104:5

Will be destroyed.

Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment

Psalm 102:25-26

²⁵²Works, i. 284. ²⁵³ Acts 17:30.

The earth abideth for ever.

Ecclesiastes 1:4

Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.

Luke 21:33

The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

2 Peter 3:10

The earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

Revelation 20:11

As to the first texts, the Hebrew word "olam" rendered "forever," does not imply the metaphysical idea of absolute endlessness, but a period of indefinite length, as Rambach says, "a very long time, the end of which is hidden from us." These texts do not necessarily teach the absolute perpetuity of the earth.

Of the opposed texts, that from Psalm 102 is a kind of comparison between the eternity of God and the dependent existence of material objects: "Though they should perish, thou shalt stand." Similarly Luke: "Though heaven and earth should pass away, my words shall not pass away." That is, my words are more enduring than even heaven and earth.

The quotations from Peter and Revelation imply that the present constitution of things will be changed; that "the cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, and the great globe itself" will be subjected to the action of fire. This opinion prevailed among the ancient philosophers, especially the Greek stoics.254

The passages which speak of the destruction of the earth may therefore he taken as referring to the change or passing away of its present form; those which speak of its durability, as implying the permanence of its constituent dements.

(THERE  WILL  INDEED  COME  FORTH  FROM  THIS  EARTH,  A  NEW  EARTH;  THEN  GOD  THE  FATHER  WILL  COME  TO  THIS  NEW  EARTH,  TO  BE  WITH  HIS  CHILDREN,  AS  REVELATION  21  TELLS  US.  WHAT  GLORY  AND  MAJESTY  WILL  BE  ETERNITY  WHEN  ALL  THIS  COMES  TO  PASS  -  Keith Hunt)

Heaven—Occupants

Christ only.

And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

John 3:13

Elijah also.

Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

2 Kings 2:11

254 See Wetstein, on 2 Peter 3:7.

In the first text Jesus, setting forth his own superior authority, says, substantially, "No human being can speak from personal knowledge, as I do, who came down from heaven." "No man hath ascended up to heaven to bring back tidings" So we, speaking of the secrets of the future world, should very naturally say: "No man has been there to tell us about them." In saying this, we do not deny that any one has actually entered the eternal world, but merely that any one has gone thither, and returned to unfold its mysteries.

Alford applies, however, the words "hath ascended" to Christ's "exaltation to be a Prince and a Saviour."

The former explanation seems the most natural.

(THE  NATURAL  ONE  IS  TO  BELIEVE  JUST  WHAT  JESUS  SAID,  NO  MAN  HAS  GONE  TO  HEAVEN,  ONLY  HE  THAT  CAME  DOWN  FROM  HEAVEN.  ELIJAH  DID  NOT  GO  TO  GOD  IN  HEAVEN.  MOSES  IS  NOT  IN  HEAVEN.  ENOCH  DID  NOT  GO  TO  HEAVEN.  SEE  THE  STUDY  "ENOCH,  MOSES,  ELIJAH  -  DID  THEY  GO  TO  HEAVEN?"  -  Keith Hunt)

Flesh and blood excluded. 

Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

                                                                  1 Corinthians 15:50

Enoch there.

Enoch was translated that he should not see death.

Hebrews 11:5

A late sceptical writer adduces this and the preceding as cases of discrepancy. It need only be said that, beyond question, Enoch and Elijah, before entering the heavenly world, passed through a change equivalent to death. Their corruptible put on incorruption, and their mortal put on immortality.

(NOPE  THEY  DID  NOT,  AS  THEY  NEVER  WENT  TO  GOD'S  HEAVEN  AT  ALL  -  Keith Hunt)

Publicans and harlots enter.

The publicans and the harlots go into

the kingdom of God before you.

Matthew 21:31

Impure not there.

Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

                                                                 1 Corinthians 6:9-10

The first text does not say that publicans and harlots as such, but merely that some who had been such, and had afterwards repented, should enter heaven. Paul, in the verse succeeding the quotation from Corinthians, observes: "And such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified." They had been corrupt and wicked, but were so no longer. Observe, also, that our Savior's assertion amounts simply to this, "The publicans and harlots are more likely to be saved, stand a better chance for salvation, than do you, chief priests and elders."

Neither this passage, nor any other, sanctions the idea of impurity tolerated in heaven.

Employments

Incessant praise.

And they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

Revelation 4:8

Rest and quiet

There remaineth therefore a rest to the

people of God.

Hebrews 4:9

Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours.

Revelation 14:13

The two cases are quite different; the former is that of the four wonderful "living creatures," the latter that of departed believers. Moreover, the "rest" attributed to departed saints is "rest from their labors"—from every thing painful and wearisome—but not a "rest" of dormant inactivity, precluding enjoyment, praise, and glorified service.

………………..

(THIS  HAS  BEEN  A  VERY  LONG  STUDY;  I  SHOULD  SAY  A  START  TO  A  STUDY,  AS  THE  SUBJECTS  OF  MANKIND,  THE  SPIRIT  IN  MAN,  WAS  MANKIND  CREATED  IMMORTAL,  DEATH  AND  THEN  WHAT,  RESURRECTIONS,  SALVATION,  REWARDS  -  ALL  TAKE  MUCH  TIME  TO  RESEARCH  AND  STUDY  -  Keith Hunt)

SO-CALLED  CONTRADICTIONS  OF  THE  BIBLE  #8

Ethical Discrepancies

1. Duty of Man—Toward God

Blessing gained

By those who see.

Blessed are the eyes which see the things

that ye see.

Luke 10:23

Those who see not.

Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

John 20:29

The word "blessed," in the first case seems to mean "highly favored," enjoying peculiar privileges;" in the latter, "worthy of commendation."

Andrew Fuller: "There is a wide difference between requiring sight as the ground of faith, which Thomas did, and obtaining it as the completion of faith, which those who saw the coming and kingdom of the Messiah did. The one was in species of unbelief, the other was faith terminating in vision."

The reader need not be reminded that no rigid and precise classification has been attempted. That arrangement which seemed most natural and obvious has generally been adopted. The mere classification of discrepancies is a trivial matter in comparison with their solution.

Blood—disposal

Poured upon altar.

The blood of thy sacrifices shall be

poured out upon the altar.

                                         Deuteronomy 12:27

Sprinkled upon it.

The priests shall sprinkle the blood

upon the altar round about.

Leviticus 3:2

Maimonides, whose knowledge of Hebrew customs and traditions was unsurpassed, says that a part of the blood was sprinkled upon the altar, and the remainder poured out at the bottom of it.

The Septuagint and Vulgate render the Hebrew word in Leviticus "pour" and "pour out."2 A part of the blood was disposed of in one way and the rest in another. Smith's Bib. Dietsays that the priest, after he had sprinkled the altar of incense with die blood, "poured out what remained at the foot of die altar of burnt-offering." Outram:3 "The blood of the paschal lamb, of the male firstlings, and of the tithes, was considered as rightly sprinkled, if it were only poured out at either corner of the altar."

Covered with dust.

He  shall  even  pour  out  the  blood

thereof, and cover it with dust.

Leviticus 17:13

Poured out as water.

Thou shalt pour it upon the earth as

water.

                                         Deuteronomy 12:24

Strange that a recent author who deems this a discrepancy could not see that the blood might be "poured upon the earth," and afterward "covered with the dust."

Christ's execution

Lawful.

We have a law, and by our law he ought

to die.

John 19:7

Unlawful.

It is not lawful for us to put any man

to death.

John 18:31

The first text refers to the Mosaic code, the second to the restrictions imposed by the Roman government. The meaning of the combined passages is, "By our code of laws he ought to die, but it is not lawful for us (not permitted us by the Roman government) to put any man to death."

Alford: "From the time when Archelaus was deposed (a.d. 6 or 7) and Judea became a Roman province, it would follow by the Roman law, that the

² Fuerst says the word means, to moisten, to wet.

³ On Sacrifices, chap. xvi.

Jews lost the power of life and death." From Josephus,4 we learn that it was not permitted the high priest even to assemble a sanhedrim without the consent of the Roman procurator.

Covenant basis

Religious laws.

And he said, Behold I make a covenant. . . . Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with

Exodus 34:10, 27

Civil laws.

Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments. . . . The covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.

Exodus 24:3, 8

The discrepancy which a late writer finds here has no existence, except in his imagination. The first passage clearly makes the decalogue the foundation of the "covenant."5 The "words" and "judgments" of the second passage begin with the decalogue in the twentieth chapter, so that both passages concur in making that decalogue the "basis" of the "covenant."

Covering of sin

Approved.

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Psalm 32:1

Denounced.

He that covereth his  sins  shall not

prosper.

Proverbs 28:13

In the first text, the parallelism shows that the "covering of sin" means its remission or atonement. The second, as the context evinces, refers to its unjustifiable concealment.

The first text alludes to God's gracious act in forgiving sin; the second to roans wicked act in conniving at it, and hiding it.

Crimes specified

One list.

Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth it in a secret place: and all the people shall answer and say, Amen, etc.

                                          

                                      Deuteronomy 27:15-26

A different list.

And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me, etc.

                                     Exodus 20:1—23:33⁶

⁴ Antiq. xx. 9, 1. 

5 See Exodus 34:28, last clause. 

⁶ Passages abridged here, and in several cases.

Keil, on Deuteronomy 27:26: "From this last curse, which applies to even-breach of the law, it evidently follows, that the different sins and transgressions already mentioned were only selected by way of example, and for the most part were such as could be easily concealed from the judicial authorities."

Similarly Le Clerc and Michaelis.

David's conduct

Strayed from God.

I have gone astray like a lost sheep.

Psalm 119:176

Did not stray.

Yet I erred not from thy precepts.

Psalm 119:110

David does not charge himself with any moral obliquity, but sets forth his desolate and perilous condition. The Hebrew of "have gone astray" means, according to Gesenius, "to be thrust hither and thither." Surely this was David's experience.

Menasseh ben Israel takes the first text as alluding to the "troubles and misfortunes which David experienced in this world—constantly persecuted, and fleeing from one place to another to escape from Saul and his own son."

A man of perfect heart. 

His heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father. Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

1 Kings 15:3, 5

I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.

Acts 13:22

Committed sin.

David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the Lord, I have sinned greatly in that I have done.

2 Samuel 24:10

Thou hast been a man of war, and hast shed blood.

1 Chronicles 28:3

The quotation from Acts refers to David early in life,7 before he had fallen into those great sins which cast such a shadow upon his administration.

Again, the praise bestowed upon David contemplates him in relation to his predecessor and successors in the kingly office. In comparison with them, his heart was "perfect with the Lord his God." Hackett:8 "This commendation is not absolute, but describes the character of David in comparison with that of

⁷See 1 Samuel 13:14.

⁸On Acts 13:22.

Saul." Smith's Bib. Diet, says, "The commendation has been made too much of. It merely indicates a man whom God will approve, in distinction from Saul, who was rejected."

Besides, David's repentance was as deep and thorough as his sins were flagrant and aggravated. On this subject Mr. Carlyle 9 fitly and forcibly remarks: "Who is called 'the man after God's own heart'? David, the Hebrew king, had fallen into sins enough—blackest crimes—there was no want of sin. And, therefore, unbelievers sneer, and ask, 'Is this your man according to God's heart'? The sneer, I must say, seems to me but a shallow one. What are faults, what are the outward details of a life, if the inner secret of it, the remorse, temptations, the often-baffled, never-ended struggle of it, be forgotten? . . . David's life and history, as written for us in those Psalms of his, I consider to be the truest emblem ever given us of a man's moral progress and warfare here below. All earnest souls will ever discover in it the faithful struggle of an earnest human soul towards what is good and best. Struggle often baffled—sore baffled—driven as into entire wreck; yet a struggle never ended, ever with tears, repentance, true unconquerable purpose, begun anew."

In this his constant attitude as a moral hero "striving against sin," who when "cast down is not destroyed," but springs up, to renew the conflict, David challenges our admiration.

Fast—observance

Enjoined.

On the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you. . . . And ye shall do no work in that same day: ... for whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people.

Leviticus 23:27-29

Disregarded.

And at that time Solomon held a feast, and all Israel with him, . . . before the Lord our God, seven days and seven days, even fourteen days. On the eighth day he sent the people away.

1 Kings 8:65-66

And on the three and twentieth day of the seventh month he sent the people away into their tents.

2 Chronicles 7:10

It cannot be proved that Solomon did not keep the day of atonement according to the law in Leviticus. The feast of tabernacles began on the fifteenth and ended on the twenty-second of the month; closing with a "holy convocation" the "eighth day,"10 at the end of which Solomon dismissed the people; the dismission

9 Heroes and Hero-worship, p. 72. 

10 Leviticus 23:33-39.

taking effect the next morning, the twenty-third. In this manner the accounts in Kings and Chronicles harmonize perfectly.

We may suppose that the first series of seven days was not entirely consecutive, but began with the seventh, and included three days before and four days after the tenth, or "day of atonement," which was fitly observed. Or it may be that this series began with the eighth day of the month, while the "day of atonement," being itself a religious solemnity of high importance, and from the brevity of the narrative, is reckoned in as one of the days of festivity, although it was kept according to the law.

The latter seems to be the opinion of eminent Jewish critics.11 Bahr: "Old commentators say that the dedication rendered it unusually solemn; others, that, as it was a fast-day, its observance was for the time omitted."

Firstborn sons

Dedicated.

The firstborn of thy sons shalt thou

give unto me.

Exodus 22:29

Redeemed.

All the firstborn of man among thy

children shalt thou redeem.

Exodus 13:13

Keil: "The adoption of the firstborn on the part of Jehovah was a perpetual guarantee to the whole nation of the right of covenant fellowship." The firstborn sons, though specially consecrated to God, were allowed to be redeemed, and Levites substituted in their stead.12

Firstling animals

Redeemable.

Then shalt thou turn it into money, etc. Deuteronomy 

          

                                                                          14:22-26

Not redeemable.

The firstling of a cow, or the firstling of a sheep, or the firstling of a goat, thou shalt not redeem.

Numbers 18:17

The first passage does not, as some pretend, sanction the redemption of firstlings. It merely allows them, for convenience' sake, to be "turned into money"; but the money must be taken to the prescribed place, and there expended for articles of food and drink to be consumed in the same manner as the original firstlings would have been. It was simply an arrangement for the accommodation of the offerer.

¹¹Conciliator, i. 235.

¹²Numbers 3:12-13.

Redeemed with money. 

The firstling of unclean beasts shalt thou redeem. . . . According to thine estimation, for the money of five shekels.

Numbers 18:15-16

With an animal, or slain. 

The firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck.

Exodus 34:20

Keil thinks that "the earlier law, which commanded that an ass should be redeemed with a sheep, or else be put to death, was modified in favor of the revenues of the sanctuary and its servants." Money would be more serviceable than numerous animals, by way of commutation.

Sanctified.

All the firstling males that come of thy herd and of thy flock thou shalt sanctify onto the Lord thy God.

                                         Deuteronomy 15:19

Not sanctified.

The firstling of the beasts, which should be the Lord's firstling, no man shall sanctify it.

Leviticus 27:26

Keil: "What belonged to the Lord by law could not be dedicated to him by the vow." It would be mockery to give him what was already his.

Idolatry

God only, worshipped. 

Thou shalt have no other gods before me. . . . Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.

Exodus 20:3, 5

Other beings adored.

God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day. The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads.

Genesis 48:15-16

Behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand. . . . And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship.

Joshua 5:13-14

"God before whom my fathers walked," "God who fed me all my life," and the "Angel who redeemed me" are three appellations of one and the same Being. 

Lange: "A threefold naming of God." Murphy: "Jacob's threefold periphrasis is intended to describe the one God who wills, works, and wards."

On Joshua 5:14, Keil says the Hebrew word employed here "does not always mean divine worship, but very frequently means nothing more than the deep Oriental reverence paid by a dependant to his superior or king."13 Gesenius: "This honor was paid not only to superiors, as to kings and princes, but also to equals."14 There is, then, no idolatry in either case.

13 Samuel 9:6; 14:33.

Capitally punished.

If there be found among you, . . . man or woman that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God, in transgressing his covenant. And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them... . The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people.

                                     Deuteronomy 17:2-3, 7¹⁵

Punishment undesired.

For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God. Ezekiel 18:32

The capital punishment of idolaters was not a thing desirable per se, but it was enjoined out of regard to the welfare of the people and the security of the government. Under the theocracy, in which God was the sole Lawgiver and King, idolatry was simply high treason, and must be severely punished, or the very existence of the government would be endangered.

Michaelis:16 "As the only true God was the civil legislator of the people of Israel, and accepted by them as their King, idolatry was a crime against the state, and therefore just as deservedly punished with death as high treason is with us. Whoever worshipped strange gods shook, at the same time, the whole fabric of the laws, and rebelled against him in whose name the government was carried on."

Dr. Jahn:17 "Whoever in the Hebrew nation, over which Jehovah was King, worshipped another god, or practised any superstitions, by this very act renounced his allegiance to his king, and deserted to another. He committed high treason, and was properly considered a public criminal. Whoever incited others to idolatry incited them to rebellion, and was a mover of sedition. Therefore death was justly awarded as the punishment of idolatry and its kindred arts, magic, necromancy, and soothsaying; and also of inciting to idolatry."

Image-making

Sanctioned

And thou shalt make two cherubim of gold, beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy-seat. . . . And the cherubim shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy-seat with their wings.... And in the candlestick shall be four bowls made like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers.

                                        Exodus 25:18, 20, 34

And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole.

Numbers 21:8

The throne had six steps. . . . And twelve lions stood there on the one side and on the other upon the six steps: there was not the like made in any kingdom.

1 Kings 10:19-20

Forbidden.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing. . . . Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.

Exodus 20:4-5

Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee.

Deuteronomy 4:23

Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth it in a secret place.

                                         Deuteronomy 27:15

¹⁴ Genesis 23:7; Exodus 18:7; 1 Kings 2:19.

¹⁵ See Deuteronomy 13:6-11.

¹⁶ Commentary on Laws of Moses, iv. 11.

¹⁷ History of Hebrew Commonwealth, p. 19 (English edition).

Some interpret the prohibitions as referring to images intended to represent the Divine Being.

Michaelis:18 "It is evident that images of the Deity are alone spoken of in all these passages, and that, if we infer the prohibition of painting and sculpture from these texts, we might with equal reason from the words that follow, "Thou shalt not lift up thine eyes to heaven, to behold the sun, moon, and stars," infer that we are never to raise our eyes to heaven, and contemplate the sun, moon, and stars, but rather to walk upon all fours forever."

Josephus19 and Menasseh ben Israel 20 apply the prohibition to images made for the purposes of idolatry. The latter, with Rabbi Isaac Arama, also restricts it to the likeness of existing, and not of imaginary things.

Further, the cherubim were not "graven images," but were of "beaten work," as Murphy says, "formed by the hammer, of malleable gold." Nor were they made "In the likeness" of any created thing whatever. Their form was purely ideal."

Hengstenberg:21 "The cherubim is a representative of creation in its highest grade, an ideal creature. The vital powers communicated to the most elevated existences in the visible creation are collected and individualized in it."

In this view Josephus, Bochart, Stuart,22 and Fairbairn 23 substantially agree. Thus it is clear that neither the making of the cherubim nor the other cases of sculpture or image-making was a violation of the second commandment. The idolatrous purpose at which the prohibition is aimed was wanting in all of the foregoing instances.

¹⁸ Com. on Laws of Moses, iv. 52.

¹⁹ Antiq. iii. v. 5.

²⁰ Conciliator, i. 154-157.

21 Egypt and Books of Moses, 168.

22 On Revelation 4:6-8.

23 Typology, i. 261-262 (4th edition).

Israel's transgression

Ineradicable.

For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me.

Jeremiah 2:22

To be removed.

O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?

Jeremiah 4:14

Abarhanel: "Although you wash and cleanse yourself outwardly, your iniquity is marked." That is, by no external rites and ceremonies can you be cleansed; your hearts must be purified by penitence.

Jerusalem—ethical aspect

A delight to God.

The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God.

Psalm 87:2-3

For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation.

Psalm 132:13

A provocation.

For this city has been to me as a provocation of mine anger and of my fury from the day that they built it even unto this day; that I should remove it from before my face.

Jeremiah 32:31

In the first passages there is, as Tholuck says, "no reference to Jerusalem according to her earthly aspects, with her streets and walls and palaces." It is the churchy which is figuratively styled "Zion" and "city of God."

Calvin; "Christ has by his advent extended Mount Zion to the ends of the earth." Jeremiah refers to the literal Jerusalem.

(BAD  UNDERSTANDING:  THE  CITY  IS  THE  LITERAL  CITY  OF  JERUSALEM.  THE  SAME  KIND  OF  THOUGHT  IS  IN  GOD  MAKING  MANKIND….IT  WAS  GOOD;  YET  LATER  IT  IS  WRITTEN  HE  REPENTED  OF  MAKING  MANKIND  FOR  THE  WICKEDNESS  THAT  CAME.  JERUSALEM  CAN  BE  BOTH  A  GLORY  TO  GOD  AND  ALSO  REPUGNANT  WITHIN  DIFFERENT  SITUATIONS  AND  TIMES. THE  WORDS  "FROM  THE  DAY  THAT  THEY  BUILT  IT  EVEN  UNTO  THIS  DAY"  IS  A  FIGURE  OF  SPEACH  USED  BY  GOD  AS  HE  IN  THIS  SITUATION  ONLY  THINKS  OF  ALL  THE  EVIL  IT  PRODUCED [OF  COURSE  THERE  WAS  GOOD,  AS  UNDER  THE  REIGN  OF  DAVID  AND  SOLOMON]  -  Keith Hunt)

Judging of David

Desired.

Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me.

Psalm 7:8

Deprecated.

Enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.

Psalm 143:2

The first text has reference to one particular case, the controversy between David and "Cush 24 the Benjamite." David knew himself to be guiltless of the crimes alleged against him by this enemy; hence his appeal: "As to this charge, God knows that I am innocent." But, on a retrospect of his whole life, he

* The Jewish expositors understood Saul to be meant; others say Shimei.

acknowledges his ill-desert in general, and exclaims: "Enter not into judgment with thy servant." A man may be absolutely innocent, even in God's sight, with reference to a certain accusation, yet not sinless in respect to his whole life.

Just man's life

By faith.

The just shall live by his faith.

Habakkuk2:4

By deeds.

If a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right.... he shall surely live, saith the Lord God.

Ezekiel 18:5, 9

The faith is such as produces good works; the deeds are such as spring from living faith. One text speaks of the subject in one relation; the other, in a different, yet not incompatible one.

Monarchy

Sanctioned by God.

When thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me; thou shalt in anywise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose.

Deuteronomy 17:14-15

Offensive to Him.

Make us a king to judge us like all the nations. . . . And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, . . . but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.

1 Samuel 8:5, 7

Is it not wheat harvest to day? I will call unto the Lord, and he shall send thunder and rain; that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking you a king.

1 Samuel 12:17

The rationalistic objection is that the monarchy was contemplated and provided for in the law, yet was afterwards declared to be offensive in the sight of God. To this objection Jewish interpreters25 reply as follows. It is said, in Tosa-pfaoth, that the sin lay "not in demanding a king, but in the mode of so doing, Tike all the nations,'" virtually equivalent to a wish to become like surrounding idolaters. Maimonides and Nachmanides: In making their demand in the shape at a complaint, as if they were tired of Samuel's administration, and wished to

¹⁵ See Menasseh ben Israel's Conciliator, i. 285-289.

be rid of him. The Cabalists: In acting prematurely, or asking impatiently and at an improper time.

Abarbanel: "The divine will was not that they should elect a king, for God was the true King of Israel." That is, Deuteronomy 17 was not a command, nor even a permission, to choose a king, but a mere prophetic statement of what God foresaw they would do. It is not said, "When you enter the land, place a king over you," but, "When thou art come unto the land, and shalt say, I will set," etc.

Professor Keil finds the wrong in their overlooking their own misconduct, and in distrusting God and his guidance. "In such a state of mind as this, their desire for a king was a contempt and rejection of the kingly government of Jehovah, and was nothing more than forsaking him to serve other gods."

Motherhood

Blessed.

Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by

the sides of thy house.

Psalm 128:3

To be expiated.

She shall bring a lamb of the first year for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon, or a turtledove, for a sin offering, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest: who shall offer it before the Lord, and make an atonement for her.

Leviticus 12:6-7

Michaelis thinks that Moses, by such laws, intended to "represent theological truths in a figurative manner."

Abarbanel:26 "As no one bears pains and troubles in this world without guilt; and as there is no chastisement without sin; and lastly, as every woman bears children with pain and danger, hence every one is commanded, after childbirth, to offer an expiatory sacrifice."

(IT  IS  WRONG  TO  SAY  OR  BELIEVE  EVERY  WOMAN  BEARS  CHILDREN  "IN  PAIN"  -  SUCH  IS  NOT  THE  CASE  AS  THOUSANDS  OF  WOMEN  BEAR  TESTIMONY  TO.  I  HAVE  A  STUDY  ON  THIS  WEBSITE  THAT  CORRECTLY  UNDERSTANDS  THE  PASSAGE  IN  GENESIS  THAT  SAY  IN  EFFECT  WOMEN  WOULD  BEAR  CHILDREN  IN  PAIN  -  Keith Hunt)

Leyrer 27 says that this and all the other rites of purification were intended "to foster the constant humiliation of fallen man; to remind him in all the leading processes of natural life—generation, birth, eating, disease, death—how everything, even his own bodily nature, lies under the curse of sin, that so the law might become a schoolmaster to bring unto Christ, and awaken and sustain the longing for a Redeemer from the curse which had fallen upon his body."

Mr. Clark, in Bible Commentary: "The conclusion, then, appears to be reasonable that all the rites of purification were intended to remind the Israelite

²⁶ On Leviticus 12; quoted in Outram on Sacrifices, p. 145.

²⁷ In Keil.

that he belonged to a fallen race, and that he needed a purification and atonement which he could not effect for himself."

Paul's moral state

Nothing good in him.

For I know that in me (that is, in my

flesh,) dwelleth no good thing.

Romans 7:18

Christ dwelt in him.

I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. Galatians 2:20

In these passages Paul speaks in two distinct relations. "In me, that is, in my flesh"—in my lower, carnal self. "Christ liveth in me"—in my higher, spiritual self, in my renewed heart in which Christ is enthroned. This is Alford's view. Hodge takes substantially the same view. Some interpret the first text as describing Paul previous to his conversion; the latter, as applying to him after that event.

Piety evinced

By profession.

No man can say that Jesus is the Lord,

but by the Holy Ghost.

1 Corinthians 12:3

Profession useless.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord,

Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of

heaven.

Matthew 7:21

And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

Luke 6:46

The word "say," in the first text, does not imply the mere utterance of the words, but the hearty and spontaneous confession of belief in the Messiahship of Jesus. In the last texts the calling of him "Lord," "Lord," is mere lip service.

Prayer

May be in public.

And Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven: and he said, Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee.

1 Kings 8:22-23

His windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime. Then these men assembled, and found Daniel praying.

Daniel 6:10-11

Should be in private.

He went in therefore, and shut the door

upon them twain, and prayed unto the

Lord.

2 Kings 4:33

When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret. Matthew 6:5-6

I will therefore that men pray every where.

1 Timothy 2:8

He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.

Luke 6:12

Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour.

Acts 10:9

It is not publicity, but ostentation in prayer, which is prohibited; not praying in public, but praying in conspicuous places to "be seen of men." The motive, not the place, is the thing in question. Chrysostom and Augustine both caution us against a merely literal interpretation of Matthew 6:6.

(PRAYING  IN  A  CHURCH  SERVICE  IS  ONE  THING,  BUT  PRAYING  TO  THOUSANDS  OR  MILLIONS  OF  CASUAL  ANYBODY  VIEWING  ON  TV,  THE  TV  EVANGELIST,  IS  QUITE  ANTHER  SITUATION;  PRAYING  TO  THAT  KIND  OF  OUTSIDE  AUDIENCE  IS  AN  EXERCISE  IN  VANITY  -  Keith Hunt)

Incessant.

Because of his importunity he will rise

and give him as many as he needeth.

Luke 11:8

Men ought always to pray, and not to faint; . . . Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him.

Luke 18:1, 7

Brief.

When ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

Matthew 6:7-8

There are abundant examples of the "vain repetitions" which Jesus prohibits. Lightfoot adduces a Jewish maxim, "He who multiplies prayer is heard."

The priests of Baal, in their frantic orgies before their idols sacrifices, cried from morning even until noon saying, "O Baal, hear us; O Baal, hear us."28 Another instance is that of the mob at Ephesus, who for about two hours cried out, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians."29

The Mohammedan monks in India often practise these "vain repetitions" for days together. They have been known to repeat a single syllable of supposed religious efficacy until their strength was exhausted, and they could no longer speak.30 A missionary writes that in Orissa some heathen worshippers sit for many hours of the day and night pronouncing the name of Krisnu on a string of beads.

Alford, with great fitness, adduces the "Paternosters" and "Ave Marias" of the Romish church as examples in point.

It is such idle, empty "repetitions" as the above which the Greek term "bat-talogeo" designates, and which Christ condemns, and not fervent, importunate supplication.

²⁸1 Kings 18:26-29.

²⁹ Acts 19:34.

³⁰ Hackett on Acts, p. 322. See, also, Morier's Second Journey, p. 176.

Repentance

Esau unable to repent.

He   found   no   place   of repentance,

though  he  sought  it  carefully with

tears.

Hebrews 12:17

Ought to have repented.

God ... commandeth all men every

where to repent.

Acts 17:30

Most modern commentators, as Stuart, Tholuck, Ebrard, Barnes, interpret the first text, "found no place for a change of mind in his father." But Alford, Bleek, Delitzsch, De Wette, Hofmann, and others take it as meaning that he found no way open to reverse what had been done. "He might change; but the penalty could not, from the very nature of the circumstances, be taken off." He might secure the salvation of his soul; but he could not regain the forfeited birthright, nor secure the revocation of the blessing pronounced prophetically upon Jacob.

Righteousness

Perilous.

Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself?

Ecclesiastes 7:16

Want of it, perilous.

Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?

Ecclesiastes 7:17

The first text is a caution against pharisaic self-righteousness, laying claim to superior wisdom and sanctity, and incurring the penalty which God sends upon arrogance and hypocrisy.

The second admonishes us to be on our guard against crossing the borderline which separates the righteous, who is still subject to weakness and error, from the wilful transgressor. Zockler, referring to these texts, says: "A recommendation to avoid the two extremes of false righteousness and bold wickedness."

The gist of the whole is: Avoid extremes in all things.

Sabbath

Sanctioned.

Remember the sabbath day to keep it

holy.

Exodus 20:8

Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it.

Isaiah 56:2

Repudiated.

The new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 

Isaiah 1:13

One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.

                                                                     Romans 14:5 

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days.

Colossians 2:16

The reason why the Sabbath keeping and other observances of the Israelites were not acceptable to God, is set forth by Isaiah, in a subsequent verse, thus: "Your hands are full of blood."

As to the text from Romans, Stuart, Barnes, Hodge, and others think that Paul is not here speaking of the "Lord's day" at all, but of certain Jewish festivals, the passover, feast of tabernacles, and the like, which a man might observe or not, as he saw fit.

Colossians 2:16, is interpreted by Gilfillan 31 as referring to the Jewish sabbath, or "seventh day," which had been superseded by "the Lord's day"; the latter being, at the time of Paul's writing, acknowledged and observed by the whole Christian church.

Others, from the fact that the term "sabbath" is applied, in the Old Testament, not only to the seventh day, but to all the days of holy rest observed by the Hebrews, and particularly to the beginning and close of their great festivals, understand the last text as not intended to include the weekly day of rest.

(A  BAD  MIXTURE  OF  UNDERSTANDING:  PEOPLE  LIKE  BARNES  IN  THEIR  DAY  BELIEVED  SINCERELY  THERE  WAS  TO  BE  A  SABBATH  DAY  OBSERVED  BY  GOD'S  PEOPLE,  THOUGH  TO  THEM  IT  WAS  SUNDAY.  THE  UNDERSTANDING  OF  ROMANS  14  AND  COLOSSIANS  2:16  IS  ANOTHER  CATHOLIC  AND  PROTESTANT  MESS-UP  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES  AND  TRUTHS  OF  GOD.  ALL  PASSAGES  FULLY  EXPOUNDED  IN  STUDIES  ON  THIS  WEBSITE  -  Keith Hunt)

Instituted for one reason.

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Exodus 20:11

For a different reason. 

And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.

Deuteronomy 5:15

This is an example of two concurrent reasons for the same observance. The primary reason why all mankind should keep the Sabbath is that the Creator rested on that day. An additional and special reason why the Israelites should keep it was the fact that they had been delivered from Egyptian bondage by the Author of the Sabbath.

If it were said to the freedmen of this country, "You should observe the first day of January, because it is the beginning of a new year"; and a little after:

³¹ "The Sabbath," pp. 303-313. See, also, Justin Edwards's "Sabbath Manual," pp. 117-127.

"You should observe the first day of January, because it is the anniversary of your emancipation by President Lincoln," there would be no discrepancy.

Sabbath desecration

Prohibited.

Whosoever  doeth  any work  in  the

sabbath day, he shall surely be put to

death.

Exodus 31:15

They found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.... And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died: as the Lord commanded Moses.

Numbers 15:32, 36

Countenanced.

At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungered, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat, etc.

Matthew 12:1-5

And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.

John 5:16

Deeds of necessity and mercy were not forbidden by Moses. Eating, drinking, caring for the sick, and like needful acts were not interdicted. Our Savior did not "break" the Sabbath. He did, indeed, disregard the foolish traditions of the scribes and pharisees relative to that day, but neither by precept nor example did he sanction its real desecration.

(AND  BY  OBSERVING  IT,  THE  SABBATH,  7TH  DAY  OF  THE  WEEK,  HE  LEFT  US  AN  EXAMPLE,  AS  HE  DID  IN  ALL  HIS  LIFE,  TO  LIVE  AS  HE  LIVED.  HE  NEVER  OFFERED  AN  ANIMAL  SACRIFICE  -  Keith Hunt)

Sacrifices

Appointed.

Thou shalt burn the whole ram upon

the altar: it is a burnt offering unto the

Lord. ... And thou shalt offer every

day a bullock for a sin offering for

atonement.

Exodus 29:18, 36

Disavowed.

Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High.

Psalm 50:13-14

For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.

Psalm 51:16

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations: incense is an abomination unto me.

Isaiah 1:11-13

Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me. 

                                                                   Jeremiah 6:20 

For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: but this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people. 

                                                              Jeremiah 7:22-23

For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. 

                                                                        Hosea 6:6

The first quotation from Psalms sets forth God's spirituality, as a result of which "the outward sacrifices, as such, can yield him no satisfaction."

The second contrasts mere external sacrifices with that obedience in default of which all sacrifices are worthless. The offerings spoken of by Isaiah and Jeremiah (sixth chapter) were rejected because of the wickedness of the offerers. Their hands were "full of blood," and they had "rejected" God's law. Reason enough for the nonacceptance of their oblations. Jeremiah 7:22, 23 is susceptible of two interpretations.32

First. It may be taken as a Hebraistic way of saying, "At that time, I laid no stress upon mere sacrifices in comparison with true obedience. This explanation is given by Calvin and Stuart, also by Dr. Priestley and Prof. Norton. 33 This interpretation is in harmony with Hosea 6:6, also with Samuel's language to Saul: "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."34

Secondly. The quotation may mean, "I gave the command relative to obedience previous to that concerning sacrifices." This interpretation, propounded by the Jewish critics, agrees with the facts in the case. The command respecting obedience was given at Marah, 35 just after the Hebrews left the Red Sea; those pertaining to sacrifices were mainly given at Mount Sinai 36 at a later period of the history.

It is clear that none of the foregoing texts disparage sacrifices offered aright. Heartless offerings are ever rejected.

³² Magee on Atonement, pp. 146-147 (Bonn's edition).

³³ Evidences of Genuineness of Gospels, ii. Note D. p. cxl.
³⁴ 1 Samuel 15:22.

³⁵ Exodus 15:25-26.

³⁶ Exodus 29; Leviticus 1-8.

Expiatory.

And the priest shall make an atonement for him as concerning his sin, and it shall be forgiven him.

Leviticus 4:26

The life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls.

Leviticus 17:11

One kid of the goats for a sin offering, to make an atonement for you.

Numbers 29:5

Not expiatory.

For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. . . . The same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

Hebrews 10:4, 11

Dr. Davidson 37 says that sin and trespass offerings "were regarded as possessing an atoning, expiatory power—that they were substituted in place of 'the sinner' who brought them, bearing the punishment of his transgression, and so procuring its pardon from God. By their means sins were taken away and covered. The Deity was appeased." Of the sprinkling of the blood, he adds, "The act of sprinkling was symbolical, implying that the person who offered the sacrifice had forfeited his life, and the life of the animal was forfeited instead." So Kalisch:38 "It is impossible to doubt that the doctrine of vicarious sacrifice was entertained by the Hebrews. . . . The animal dies to symbolize the death deserved by the offerer on account of his sins."

It does not, however, appear that these sacrifices were deemed to have, per se the power to remove sin. They were a condition, but not the cause, of pardon. As Alford and Ebrard say, they were "not the instrument of complete vicarious propitiation, but an exhibition of the postulate of such propitiation."

Outram also regards them merely as a "condition of pardon." These sacrifices, being a "yearly remembrance" of sin, since they could not make the offerer "perfect as pertaining to the conscience," pointed him to the great Sacrifice, which "taketh away the sin of the world."

Human sacrifices sanctioned. 

Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering.

Genesis 22:2

Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge 

of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, 

and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he 

had; and they brought them unto the valley of Achor. . . . And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them 

with fire, after they had stoned them with stones.

                                             Joshua 7:24-25

And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord. . . . Whatsoever 

cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I 

return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely 

be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt-offering. . . . 

Behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels 

and with dances: and she was his only child. . . . Her father, 

who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: 

and she knew no man.

                                                    Judges 11:30-31, 34, 39

The king took the two sons of Rizpah, ... and the five sons 

of Michal the daughter of Saul. . . . And he delivered 

them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged 

them in the hill before the Lord. ... And after that God 

was entreated for the land.

                                                          2 Samuel 21:8-9,14

³⁷ Introd. to Old Testament, i. 287. 

³⁸ On Leviticus. Part i. pp. 192-193.

Stringently prohibited.

And thou shalt not let any of thy seed

pass through the fire to Molech.

Leviticus 18:21

Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death.

Leviticus 20:2

As to the case of Abraham, God's design was not to secure a certain outward act, but a certain state of mind, a willingness to give up the beloved object to Jehovah. "The principleof this great trial," says Dr. Thomas Arnold,39 "was the same which has been applied to God's servants in every age—whether they were willing to part with what they loved best on earth when Gods service called for it." Hengstenberg:40 "Verse 12 shows that satisfaction was rendered to the Lord's command when the spiritual sacrifice was completed." In this view concur Warburton, Keil, Murphy, Lange,41 Bush, Wordsworth, and other authorities.

Kurtz 42 says: "It is true that God did not seek the slaying of Isaac in facto, but only the implicit surrender of the lad in mind and heart "The command, in the original, is somewhat ambiguous: "Make him ascend for a burnt offering." This Abraham interpreted literally, as implying the actual slaying of his son. This his mistake was the means of developing and testing his faith.

³⁹Miscel. Works, p. 150 (New York edition).

⁴⁰Genuineness of Pent. ii. 114.

⁴¹Com. on Genesis, pp 79-80.
⁴²Hist.of 01d.Cov.i.263.

The assumed slaughter of Achans children a recent author terms "a cruel and unjust thing, forbidden in Deuteronomy 24:16, yet afterwards perpetrated with the Divine sanction."

This case has been already discussed under "Justice of God." It is sufficient to say here that the case furnishes no sanction of the abominable custom of slaughtering human beings in sacrifice. As has been elsewhere suggested, for anything that we know to the contrary, Achans sons and daughters may all have been full grown, and may have encouraged and participated in the sacrilege in which he took the lead. This is Keifs view of the case.

In reference to Jephthah's supposed sacrifice of his daughter, it maybe said:

First. It cannot be proved that he did offer her as a burnt offering. The Bible does not say that he did this. If, through ignorance and a misguided fanaticism, he actually committed the cruel deed, it does not appear that God in any manner sanctioned it. The sacred historian expresses no opinion in regard to it. The apparent commendation of Jephthah, in Hebrews 11:32, applies to the general tenor of his life, and not, necessarily, to every act performed by him in that remote age.

Secondly. There are good reasons for holding, with Auberlen, Bush, Cassel, Delitzsch, Grotius, Hengstenberg, Houbigant, Keil, the Kimchis, Lange, LeClerc, Lilienthal, Saalschiitz, Schudt, Waterland, and other critics, that, instead of being offered as a burnt sacrifice, she was simply devoted to perpetual celibacy in the service of the tabernacle.43

(a) The literal sacrifice of human beings was strictly forbidden in the Mosaic law, and Jephthah was doubtless fully aware of this fact.

(b) The Hebrew of Jephthah's vow may be correctly translated, "Shall surely be the Lord's,44 or I will offer it up for a burnt-offering." Dr. Davidson:45 "It cannot be denied that the conjunction Vav may be rendered. The Hebrew language had very few conjunctions, and therefore one had to fulfil the office of several in other languages." Dr. Randolph, J. Kimchi, and Auberlen render, "Shall surely be the Lords, and I will offer to him a burnt offering." Dr. Davidson says: "We admit that the construction is grammatically possible; for examples justify it, as Gesenius shows." Either of these translations removes the difficulty.

© During the "two months" which intervened between Jephthah's return and the supposed sacrifice, it is scarcely credible that the priests would not have interfered to prevent the barbarous deed, or that Jephthah himself would not have "inquired of the Lord" respecting a release from his vow.

⁴³ See allusion to something similar; Exodus 38:8 and 1 Samuel 2:22.

⁴⁴ Compare 1 Samuel 1:11. "I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life."

45 Introd. to Old Testament, i. 476.

As she was Jephthah's only child, to devote her to perpetual virginity would preclude him from all hope of posterity—in the estimation of a Jew, a most humiliating and calamitous deprivation.

The phraseology of verses 37-40 points clearly to a life of perpetual and enforced celibacy. On any other hypothesis the language seems irrelevant and unmeaning. As Keil expresses it, to bewail ones virginity does not mean to mourn because one has to die a virgin, but because one has to live and remain a virgin. Inasmuch as the history lays special emphasis upon her bewailing her virginity, this must have stood in some peculiar relation to the nature of the vow. Observe, too, that this lamentation takes place "upon the mountains." Cassel observes that if life had been in question her tears might have been shed at home. But lamentations of this character could not be uttered in the town and in the presence of men. For such plaints, modesty required the solitude of the mountains. The words of the thirty-ninth verse are very explicit. They assert that her father fulfilled his vow through the fact that "she knew no man." That is, the vow was fulfilled in the dedication of her life to the Lord, as a spiritual burnt offering, in a life-long chastity.

"Completeness of consecration as a spiritual sacrifice" seems the pervading idea in the case of Jephthah's sacrifice.

In 2 Samuel 21:1 the designation, Saul's "bloody house," intimates strongly that the men whom a recent writer pathetically deplores as "innocent grandchildren" were really participants in the crime of their departed progenitor. He had gone beyond the reach of earthly justice; hence the penalty fell upon his surviving partners in treachery and blood. David Kimchi 46 tentatively, and Dr. Jahn 47 confidently propose this very reasonable explanation of the case.

On the whole, none of the foregoing cases represents human sacrifices as sanctioned by the Almighty.

Service of God

With fear.

Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice

with trembling.

Psalm 2:11

With gladness.

Serve the Lord with gladness.

Psalm 100:2

Reverential fear and devout gladness are quite compatible.

⁴⁶Menasseh ben Israel's Conciliator, i. 167.

⁴⁷History of Hebrew Commonwealth, p. 43 (Ward's edition).

Sin forgiven

All sin pardonable.

And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.

Acts 13:39

Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

Romans 5:20

If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

1 John 2:1

Some unpardonable.

Whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.

Matthew 12:32

He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.

Mark 3:29

There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.

1 John 5:16

The by no means assert that every sin, wherever and by whomsoever committed, will be forgiven. The general rule is that sins repented of will be forgiven. Matthew and Mark speak of sins which will never be repented of, consequently never forgiven; hence they are sins "unto death."

Sin-offering

One kind.

When the sin, which they have sinned against it, is known, then the congregation shall offer a young bullock for the sin. . . . When a ruler hath sinned, ... if his sin, wherein he hath sinned, come to his knowledge; he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats.

                                        Leviticus 4:14, 22-23

A different kind.

If ought be committed by ignorance without the knowledge of the congregation, that all the congregation shall offer one young bullock for a burnt offering, . . . and one kid of the goats for a sin offering.

Numbers 15:24

We think the difference here is due to condensation on the part of the later writer. In the first case, the offering for the congregation and that for the ruler are specified separately; in the second case, for brevity's sake, the congregation and the rulers are considered as one, and their respective offerings are spoken of as constituting but one offering.

Mr. Espin, in Bible Commentary, says that, in the citation from Leviticus, the reference is to sins of commission; in that from Numbers, to sins of omission. Hence there is a slight difference in the ritual.

Sinners'  feeling

Feared greatly.

There were they in great fear.

Psalm 53:5

No fear in the case. 

Where no fear was.

                                                                         Psalm 53:5

"The wicked flee when no man pursueth" (Proverbs 28:1).

Feared the Lord.

So these nations feared the Lord, and

served their graven images.

2 Kings 17:41

Feared not the Lord.

Unto this day they do after the former

manners: they fear not the Lord.

2 Kings 17:34

An instructive example of the use of the same word in different senses.

Staves of ark

To remain.

The staves shall be in the rings of the

ark: they shall not be taken from it.

Exodus 25:15

Might be removed.

Aaron shall come, and his sons, and they shall take down the covering veil, and cover the ark of testimony with it; . . . and shall put in the staves thereof. Numbers 4:5-6

Keil renders Numbers 4:6, "Adjust its bearing-poles." Similarly Bush, Nachmanides, Abarbanel, and Rashi. Bible Commentary, "Put the staves thereof in order."

Swearing and oaths

Countenanced.

And Abraham said, I will swear.

Genesis 21:24

And Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac.

Genesis 31:53

Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.

Deuteronomy 6:13

I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ.

Matthew 26:63

I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost.

Romans 9:1

When God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself.

Hebrews 6:13

The angel which I saw . . . lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever.

Revelation 10:5-6

Prohibited.

By swearing, and lying, and killing,

and stealing.

Hosea 4:2

It hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: but I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

Matthew 5:33-37

But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.

James 5:12

The context puts it beyond doubt that Hosea speaks of false "swearing." It is equally clear that our Lord, in Matthew, does not refer to judicial oaths, but to profane swearing, or oaths in common conversation. In proof, observe:

First. The Jews in that age were in the habit of using vain and frivolous oaths in their ordinary talk. They swore by the temple, by the earth, by heaven, by the head, etc. So long as they did not use the name of God in these oaths, they did not deem them particularly binding. This practice is alluded to in Matthew 23:16-22.

Maimonides:48 "If any one swears by heaven, by the earth, by the sun, and so forth, although it is the intention of him who swears in these words to swear by him who created these things, yet this is not an oath. Or, if one swears by one of the prophets or by one of the books of scripture, although it the the purpose of the swearer to swear by him who sent that prophet or who gave that book, nevertheless this is not an oath." Michaelis 49 says that such oaths were "at that time so common and so frequently and basely abused as to have become perfectly disgraceful to the Jews, even in the eyes of the less treacherous heathen around them, and justly distinguished by the name of Jewish oaths." Against this abuse of language the Lord cautioned his disciples: "Let your speech, or conversation 'logos' be yea, yea; nay, nay." "Do not attempt to bolster up your veracity by frivolous oaths."

(BAD  EXPLANATION:  UNDER  THE  NEW  COVENANT  -  MAGNIFICATION  AND  SPIRIT  OF  THE  LAW  -  JESUS  MEANT  WHAT  HE  SAID,  A  CHRISTIAN  SHOULD  NOT  SWEAR  BY  ANYTHING;  I.E.  HAND  ON  THE  BIBLE  ETC.  - Keith Hunt)

Secondly. So far from condemning judicial oaths, Jesus recognized their validity, and allowed himself to be put under oath. When the high priest said to him, "I adjure thee [put thee under oath, cause thee to swear] by the living God that thou tell us," Jesus submitted to be thus sworn, and responded to the solemn obligation. We find, also, that good men, an angel, even God himself, employed the "oath" for confirmation.50

WHAT  MEN  SAY  TO  YOU  IS  ONE  THING,  YOU  HAVE  NO  CONTROL  OVER  THEIR  SPEECH;  BUT  YOU  DO  NOT  HAVE  TO  AGREE  WITH  THEIR  SPEECH,  YET  YOU  CAN  OR  CAN  NOT  DO  AS  REQUESTED  EVEN  UNDER  STRONG  LANGUAGE;  JESUS  COMPLIED  BUT  THAT  DOES  NOT  MEAN  HE  ACCEPTED  "SWEARING"  UNDER  OATHS  ETC.  -  Keith Hunt

James 5:12 evidently refers to the frivolous oaths we have mentioned. Huther: "It is to be noticed that swearing by the name of God 51 is not mentioned; for we must not imagine that this is included in the last member of the clause; the apostle intending, evidently, by 'neither any other oath' to point only at similar formulae, of which several are mentioned in Matthew."

The inference from these facts we leave to the reader.

(JAMES  MEANT  WHAT  HE  SAID,  JESUS  MEANT  WHAT  HE  SAID;  THERE  IS  NO  "FRIVOLOUS"  ANYTHING  HERE  MENTIONED  BY  JAMES  OR  JESUS.  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT [COVENANT]  IS  HIGHER  THAN  THE  OLD  COVENANT;  EVEN  THE  LAWS  OF  THE  SECULAR  GOVERNMENTS  IN  THE  WEST  ALLOWED  YOU  TO  "AFFIRM"  AND  NOT  SWEAR  ON  THE  BIBLE,  IN  COURTS  OF  LAW.  A  CHRISTIAN'S  WORD  SHOULD  BE  ENOUGH,  AND  NO  SWEARING  ON  ANYTHING  SHOULD  BE  DONE.  GOD  HAS  THE  RIGHT  TO  SWEAR  BY  HIMSELF,  A  FIGURE  OF  SPEECH  HE  CAN  USE  TO  SAY,  "AS  I  AM  GOD,  THE  PERFECT  ONE,  THE  HOLY  ONE,  THE  RIGHTEOUS  ONE,  I  SAY  BY  MY  NAME…."  -  Keith Hunt)

⁴⁸Quoted by Lightfoot, Hor. Hebrews, p. 280 (Carpzov's edition).

⁴⁹Commentaries on Laws of Moses, iv. 357.

⁵⁰Compare Genesis 21:23-24; 1 Samuel 20:42; Hebrews 6:17-18; Revelations 10:5-6.

⁵¹Of course, for judicial purposes only.

Times observed

May be observed.

He that regardeth the day, regardeth it

unto the Lord.

Romans 14:6

Must not be observed.

There shall not be found among you

... an observer of times.

                                         Deuteronomy 18:10

Ye  observe  days,   and  months,   and times, and years.

Galatians 4:10

Michaelis and Aben Ezra take the expression, "observer of times," in Deuteronomy, as implying "divination from the course of theclouds." Gesenius regards it as denoting "some kind of divination connected with idolatry"; Fuerst: "It is better to set out with the fundamental signification, to cover, to wrap up." Hence the meaning would be, "to practise enchantment covertly or secretly" Keil,52 with certain rabbis, derives the Hebrew term from "ayin," an eye; hence, literally, "to ogle, to bewitch with the evil eye." The passage has no reference to the keeping of the Mosaic feasts.

The texts from Romans and Galatians refer to entirely different classes of persons. 

Andrew Fuller 53 says that the former text refers to Jewish converts, who, having from their youth observed the Mosaic festivals as instituted by Divine authority, were permitted to continue this observance, and treated as "regarding these days unto the Lord." 

A  BAD  EXPLANATION:  THE  TRUTH  OF  ROMANS  14  IS  GIVEN  IN  A  STUDY  ON  THIS WEBSITE  -  Keith Hunt

The latter text has respect to Gentile converts, who, having previously done service to idols, 54 showed some inclination to cling to their former unauthorized and superstitious observances; and hence were reproved.

(A  GOOD  EXPLANATION,  SELDOM  FOUND  IN  MODERN  FUNDAMENTAL  THEOLOGY;  BUT  THE  EXPLANATION  IS  CORRECT  -  Keith Hunt)

Trespass recompensed

To the Lord.

He shall bring for his trespass unto the

Lord a ram.

                                                                      Leviticus 5:15

To the priest.

He shall bring a ram ... for a trespass

offering, unto the priest.

                                                                      Leviticus 5:18

Rashi: "To the Lord for the priest." The latter was the Lord's deputy. A tax paid to the officer appointed by the government may be said to be paid either to the officer or to the government.

⁵²On Leviticus 19:26.

⁵³Works, i. 680-681.

⁵⁴See Galatians 4:8-11.

………………..

TO  BE  CONTINUED

ALLEGED  CONTRADICTIONS  OF  THE  BIBLE  #9

2. Duty of Man—To Himself

Anger

Approved.

Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.

                                            Ephesians 4:26

Condemned.

Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go. 

                                                                       Proverbs 22:24 

Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. 

                                                                        Ecclesiastes 7:9 

Slow to wrath: for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

James 1:19-20

Paul, says Alford, "speaks of anger which is an infirmity, but by being cherished may become a sin."

Bishop Butler:55 "The first text is by no means to be understood as an encouragement to indulge ourselves in anger; the sense being certainly this, 'Though ye be angry, sin not'; yet here is evidently a distinction made between anger and sin—between the natural passion and sinful anger."

The last clause hits the point precisely. There is a normal indignation, which is evoked by exhibitions of meanness, treachery, and injustice, and which may, within certain limits, be indulged without sin. This emotion is to be distinguished from those furious and unreasonable ebullitions of wrath which characterize a passionate man.

Animal food

Use unrestricted.

Every moving thing that liveth shall be

meat for you.

Genesis 9:3

There is nothing unclean of itself.

Romans 14:14

Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake.

                                                    1 Corinthians 10:25

Restricted.

Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof. . . . They are unclean unto you.

Deuteronomy 14:7

The first three passages refer to men not under the Mosaic law. Deuteronomy 14 was addressed to the Israelites whom God, for wise reasons, wished to keep a distinct race.

VERY  BAD  ANSWER:  THE  TRUTH  OF  CLEAN  AND  UNCLEAN  FOODS  IS  ALL  EXPOUNDED  ON  THIS  WEBSITE  UNDER  "HEALTH"  SECTION.  THE  ABOVE  VERSES  ALL  EXPLAINED  -  Keith Hunt

⁵⁵ Sermon viii.

Dr. Davidson:56 "It is apparent that the effect of these enactments respecting different beasts as proper for food or otherwise must have been to keep the Hebrews apart from other nations; that, as a distinct people, they might be preserved from idolatry. If certain articles of food common among other races were interdicted, the effect would be to break up social intercourse between them; by which means the Jews would not be in so much danger of learning their barbarous customs, and falling into their superstitions. Thus the separation of meats into clean and unclean was most salutary to a monotheistic people, set apart as the chosen depositaries of the knowledge of God, and exposed on every side to polytheistic tribes."57

(A  BAD  ANSWER  IN  THE  OVERALL.  REALLY  SHOWS  HOW  DUMB  SOME  THEOLOGIANS  ARE  WHEN  IT  COMES  TO  THE  DIETRY  LAWS  OF  GOD.  ALL  EXPLAINED  IN  DETAIL  UNDER  MY  "HEALTH"  SECTION  -  Keith Hunt)

Certain animals forbidden.

And every creeping thing that flieth

is unclean unto you: they shall not be

eaten.

                                                   Deuteronomy 14:19

Same allowed.

These may ye eat of every flying creeping thing that goeth upon all four, which have legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth. . . . But all other flying creeping things, which have four feet, shall be an abomination unto you. 

                                                 

                                                                      Leviticus 11:21, 23

Keil: "The edible kinds of locusts are passed over, in Deuteronomy 14, because it was not the intention of Moses to repeat every particular of the earlier laws in these addresses." In the rapid outline given in Deuteronomy it was not practicable to notice unimportant exceptions.

Boasting

Tolerated.

I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

                                                   1 Corinthians 15:10

That which I speak, I speak it not after

the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in

this  confidence  of boasting.   Seeing

that many glory after the flesh, I will

glory also.

                                                  2 Corinthians 11:17-18

In nothing am I behind the very chief-est apostles, though I be nothing.

                                                   2 Corinthians 12:11

Repudiated.

Let another man praise thee, and not

thine own mouth.

Proverbs 27:2

That no flesh should glory in his presence.

1 Corinthians 1:29

⁵⁶Introd. to Old Testament, i. 258.

⁵⁷Difference of national customs furnishes the solution of several alleged "discrepancies."
For example, the wearing of long hair by men is allowed in Numbers 6:5, and repudiated in 1 Corinthians 11:14. But, then, the first passage refers to Jews, the second is addressed to Greeks at Corinth. Among the former, the wearing of long hair was counted honorable, even ornamental, rather than otherwise; among the latter, it indicated effeminacy and the indulgence of unnatural vices. See Stuart, Hist, of Canon of Old Testament, p. 375
(Revised edition, p. 351).

(NUMBERS 6:5 IS FOR THOSE UNDER A NAZARITE VOW FOR A PERIOD OF TIME, AND HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH A PERMANENT  LIFE  STYLE.  1 COR.11:14  CONCERNS A WAY OF PHYSICALLY  LIVING  ON  A  PERMANENT  BASIS. THE  IDEA  ABOVE  #57  IS  THEOLOGICALLY  INEPT  -  Keith Hunt)

The limiting clauses, "not I, but the grace of God," "though I be nothing," and the like, show that it was not self-conceit which impelled Paul to "boast" or "glory."

Andrew Fuller,58 comparing the texts from Proverbs and Corinthians, says: "The motive in the one case is the desire of applause; in the other, justice to an injured character and to the gospel which suffered in his reproaches." His apparent boasting was in self-vindication.

"No flesh should glory"—none should find in the gospel occasion for pride and self-exaltation. Paul did not "glory" thus carnally.

Paul unsurpassed.

For I suppose I was not a whit behind

the very chiefest apostles.

2 Corinthians 11:5

For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles.

Galatians 2:8

Humblest of apostles.

For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

1 Corinthians 15:9

Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.

Ephesians 3:8

These passages present the apostle in two distinct aspects.

In respect to his talents, his education, and his missionary zeal and labors he was unmistakably primus inter pares, first among his equals of the apostolic rank. But he, unlike the other apostles, had been, before his conversion, a fierce and bloody enemy of Christianity, who "beyond measure persecuted the church of God and wasted it."59 In his deep sorrow, shame, and humiliation at the remembrance of his former deeds of cruelty, he expresses himself in the language of the second series of texts. The two series contemplate the apostle in entirely different relations.

Moses' self-praise.

Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people.

Exodus 11:3

Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.

Numbers 12:3

Self-praise unworthy.

It is not good to eat much honey: so

for men to search their own glory is not

glory.

Proverbs 25:27

⁵⁸Works, i. 676.

⁵⁹Compare Galatians 1:13; Acts 9:1.

The quotation from Exodus is the statement of a simple historical fact. It says nothing of Moses' greatness in respect to personal qualifications, but simply asserts—what is beyond the shadow of doubt—that his miracles had produced a great effect, and had made a deep impression upon the Egyptians. And this statement is introduced not to glorify Moses, but to account in part for the ready compliance of the Egyptians in bestowing upon the Israelites the "jewels" and "raiment" which the latter demanded.

The text from Numbers has by some critics been deemed an interpolation. Others give a different translation of the Hebrew term rendered "meek." Luther says, "harassed or annoyed"; Dr. A. Clarke, "depressed"; Palfrey, "miserable"; Dean Stanley, "enduring, afflicted, heedless of self"; Smith's Bible Dictionary, "disinterested."

There is, however, no need of recourse to these definitions. Moses, under the impulse of the Holy Spirit, was writing history "objectively." Hence he speaks of himself as freely as he would of any other person. It is also to be observed that he records his own faults and sins 60 with the same fidelity and impartiality. It is remarked by Calmet: "As he praises himself here without pride, so he will blame himself elsewhere with humility." The objectionable words were inserted to explain why it was that Moses took no steps in the case to vindicate himself, and why, consequently, the Lord so promptly intervened.

Coveting

Enjoined.

Covet earnestly the best gifts.

                                                    1 Corinthians 12:31

Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy. 

                                                                     1 Corinthians 14:39

Forbidden.

Thou shalt not covet. . . any thing that

is thy neighbour's.

Exodus 20:17

"Covet," in the first two texts, implies an earnest desire for that which is legitimately within our reach; in the last, it denotes an unlawful craving for that which properly belongs to another.

Human effort

Encouraged.

So run, that ye may obtain.

1 Corinthians 9:24

Depreciated.

So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.

Romans 9:16

⁶⁰See Exodus 4:24; Numbers 20:12; Deuteronomy 1:37.

The latter text teaches that the providing of salvation was God's act, and not attributable to mans "willing" nor "running"—the act of sovereign grace, and not of the creature. The former teaches that the securing of this salvation to the individual depends upon his own exertion. God's mercy in furnishing redemption and mans effort in availing himself of that redemption are the cardinal ideas presented in the two texts.

Idol-meats

Non-essential.

But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse. 

                                                                       1 Corinthians 8:8

What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?

                                                    1 Corinthians 10:19

To be avoided.

The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils. 

                                                                 1 Corinthians 10:20-21

In the first series, Paul concedes that meat is not affected by being offered in sacrifice to idols, and that the eating of it is in itself, a matter of indifference. But he argues, in the eighth chapter,61 that Christians should refrain from this food, because their participation would be misconstrued by other persons and, in the tenth chapter,62 because the participant shares, to some extent, in the sin of idolatry.

Andrew Fuller:63 Your course is inexpedient, because it leads others into actual idolatry; it is also positively sinful, because it involves a participation in idol worship, on the general principle that he who voluntarily associates with others in any act is a partaker of that act.

(I  EXPLAIN  IT  ALL  FULLER  IN  THOSE  BOOKS  UNDER  "THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  BIBLE  STORY"  ON  THIS  WEBSITE  -  Keith Hunt)

Laughter

Commended.

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.

Proverbs 17:22

A time to every purpose under the heaven. ... A time to laugh.

Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4

I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry.

Ecclesiates 8:15

Condemned.

I said of laughter, It is mad: and of

mirth, What doeth it?

Ecclesiastes 2:2

Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

Ecclesiastes 7:3-4

⁶¹See verses 9-13.

⁶²Verses 20, 21.

⁶³Works, i. 683-684.

I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.

John 16:22

Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep.

Luke 6:25

The first texts speak approvingly of a cheerful spirit or a seasonable and rational merriment; the second condemn senseless and riotous hilarity. Hengstenberg: "Mirth considered as the highest good, as the end of life, and the too great eagerness displayed in its pursuit." Not laughter in the abstract, but laughter under certain circumstances, is condemned.

Man's own way

Must not be followed. 

Remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes.

Numbers 15:39

May be followed,

Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth;

and let thy heart cheer thee in the days

of thy youth, and walk in the ways of

thine heart, and in the sight of thine

eyes.

Ecclesiastes 11:9

Menasseh ben Israel, Aben Ezra, and Rashi take the second text as ironical: "Well, go your own way, but remember," etc. Ginsburg, Hengstenberg, and Zockler deem it an injunction to enjoy cheerfully the blessings of life, and, at the same time, to bear in mind man's accountability to the Giver of every good and perfect gift.

Mourning

Commended.

Blessed are they that mourn: for they

shall be comforted.

                                                                                Matthew 5:4

Discountenanced.

Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I

say, Rejoice.

                                                                             Philippians 4:4

The "mourning" is that attendant upon true penitence; the "rejoicing" results from the assurance of salvation. The sorrow precedes, the joy follows, pardon.

Purity

In a preceding part of this work 64 we have discussed at some length, and at one view, the alleged discrepancies which would properly come under this head.

See pp. 144-146.

Salvation

God's work.

For God is my King of old, working

salvation in the midst of the earth.

Psalm 74:12

Man's work.

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of bis good pleasure.

Philippians 2:12-13

The last verse at the right represents God as the prime mover in the work of salvation. Alford: "We owe both the will to do good and the power to his indwelling Spirit." As has been previously said, the divine and human agencies cooperate to a certain extent.65

Strong drink

Use recommended.

And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink.

                                                   Deuteronomy 14:26

And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man.

Judges 9:13

Wine that maketh glad the heart of man.

Psalm 104:15

Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.

Proverbs 31:6-7

Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.

1 Timothy 5:23

Discountenanced.

Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.

Proverbs 20:1

Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.

Proverbs 23:29-32

Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.

Hosea4:11

Nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 6:10

For an extended discussion of this point the reader is referred to the literature of the subject. It should, however, be said that the general tenor of the Bible is clearly and decidedly against intemperance.

Noahs intoxication 66—a sad blot upon a character otherwise without reproach—is related merely as a matter of history, and without comment.

(THIS  SUBJECT  IS  COVERED  IN-DEPTH  BY  MYSELF  ON  THIS  WEBSITE  -  Keith Hunt)

⁶⁵Compare pp. 166-167 of present work.

⁶⁶Genesis 9:21.

As to the miracle at Cana,67 there is nothing in the act of our Savior, nor in the circumstances of the case, which goes to sanction drunkenness.

Certain authors maintain, with some plausibility, that in all cases where strong drinks are coupled with terms of commendation, the original word properly means either unfermented wine or the fruit; and that the notices of fermented wine are restricted to passages of a condemnatory character. This position, if tenable, is one of great importance. For the discussion of this point, we have already referred to the literature of the subject.68

(THIS  IDEA  IS  A  COP-OUT  FOR  THOSE  WHO  ARE  SO  STRONGLY  AGAINST  ANY  USE  OF  ALCOHOLIC  BEVERAGES,  AND  SO  THEIR  ATTITUDE  IS  AS  ABOVE.  ALL  OF  THAT  IDEA  AND  TEACHING  I  DEBUNK  ON  THIS  WEBSITE  IN DETAIL  -  Keith Hunt)

In the quotation from Deuteronomy the words rendered "wine" and "strong drink" may not imply here fermented or intoxicating liquors. Even if such be their meaning, the passage does not sanction the use of these drinks to the extent of ebriety.

(SO  "STRONG  DRINK"  IS  THEN  COCA-COLA  OR  7-UP  OR  MAYBE  ROOT-BEAR?  RIDICULOUS  IDEAS.  THE  JEWS  HAVE  IN  ALL  THEIR  HISTORY  NEVER  THOUGHT  OR  TAUGHT  THAT  THE  BIBLE  CONDEMNS  TO  DRINK  ANY  ALCOHOL.  THEY  HAVE  ALWAYS  USED  AND  DRANK  FERMENTED  WINE  -  Keith Hunt)

Judges 9:13 appears in the sacred record, as a mere fable, with which the uninspired speaker embellished his harangue.

The text in Psalms speaks of "wine" which "maketh glad" the heart of man, and of "bread" which "strengtheneth" it. These two terms apparently stand, by metonymy, for food and drink. Hengstenberg: "What appeases hunger and thirst." It is not an intoxicating drink which is contemplated here.

(AND  IT  ALSO  COULD  BE  JUST  AS  IT  IS:  ALCOHOL  DOES  IN  MODERATION  MAKE  THE  HEART  GLAD;  AND  GOOD  WHOLE  ORGANIC  FLOUR  OF  DIFFERENT  KINDS  TO  MAKE  BREAD,  DOES  GIVE  US  STRENGTH  TO  THE  HEART  -  Keith Hunt)

The passage in Proverbs 31 points to a medicinal use of the articles in question. In verses 4 and 5 of the same chapter the use of "wine" and "strong drink" is forbidden, for a specified reason, to "kings" and "princes." It is then added: "Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish [Zockler: who is on the point of perishing, who is just expiring], and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts." The language indicates persons in a state of great depression and exhaustion.

(AND  SO  ALCOHOL  IT  MUST  BE;  PESPSI-COLA  OR  DR.PEPPER  WOULD  HARDLY  HELP  THE  HEAVY  HEART.  WHEN  THE  PRIEST  WAS  TO  PERFORM  HIS  DUTY  HE  WAS  TO  REFRAIN  FROM  WINE - ALCOHOL;  SO  IN  FULFILLING  THE  OFFICE  OF  LEADERS  LIKE   IN  OLD  DAYS,  THE  KING,  AND  PRINCES,  TODAY  OUR  PRESIDENTS  AND  PRIME-MINISTERS  AND  OTHER  OFFICIALS  IN  HIGH  PLACES, WHEN  HAVING  TO  MAKE  SERIOUS  DECISIONS,  SHOULD  REFRAIN  FROM  ALCOHOL  -  Keith Hunt)

That Paul's direction to Timothy also contemplates a strictly medical use of wine is beyond a shadow of doubt. The conclusion is that the sacred writers are* not apologists for drunkenness, and neither directly nor indirectly countenance it.

(INDEED,  WHAT  GOOD  WOULD  SOFT-DRINKS  OR  EVEN  GRAPE  JUICE [SOME  WOULD  PROBABLY  ARGUE  FOR  THIS]  DO  FOR  A  LONG  TERM  STOMACH  PROBLEM  -  Keith Hunt)

Temptation

Desirable.

My brethren, count it all joy when ye

fall into divers temptations.

James 1:2

Undesirable.

Lead us not into temptation.

Matthew 6:13

⁶⁷ John 2:1-11.

⁶⁸ Compare Smith's Bib. Diet., "Wine"; also, Lees and Burns' "Temperance Bible Commentary" (American edition, New York, 1870). A writer in Fairbairn's Imperial Bible Diet, says, that [Hebrew given] properly means vintage fruit, a solid, instead of a liquid; that [Hebrew given] means syrup from
various fruits not intoxicating when new. Fuerst takes [Hebrew] with [Hebrew] Jeremiah 40:10, as denoting bunches of grapes. Cassell's Bible Diet, says that with the exception of [Hebrew] and perhaps of [Hebrew], the other original terms are not used in connection with drunkenness. But see [Hebrew]
in Hosea 4:11, above.

The word rendered "temptations," says Alford, means "not only what we properly call temptations, but any kind of distresses which happen to us, from without or from within, which in God's purpose serve as trials of us." Matthew inculcates "a humble self-distrust and shrinking from such trials in the prospect"; James teaches that when they do providentially overtake us, we are to rejoice that even these things shall work together for our good.

("LEAD  US  NOT  INTO  TEMPTATION"  IS  COVERED  FULLY  IN  MY  STUDIES  ON  PRAYER  ON  THIS  WEBSITE  -  Keith Hunt)

Wealth

Not to be retained.

If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven.

Matthew 19:21

As many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet.

Acts 4:34-35

They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil.

1 Timothy 6:9-10

May be retained.

Charge  them that  are  rich  in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches. . . . That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate.

1 Timothy 6:17-18

The young ruler's was an exceptional case. His "great possessions" were his idol; love of money was his great sin. Jesus shaped the injunction to meet this special case; aiming, as always, at the besetting sin of the individual. The only legitimate inference is that every sin, even the most cherished, must be given up, if we would be disciples of Christ.

Of the example in Acts, Alford says that it was a voluntary one, was enforced nowhere by any rule, and that it prevailed only at Jerusalem. Hackett: "The community of goods, as it existed in the church at Jerusalem, was purely a voluntary thing, and not required by the apostles."

Not those who "are rich," but those who "will 69 be rich," those who make riches the great object of life, are admonished by the apostle in 1 Timothy 6. The excessive love, rather than the mere possession, of wealth, is the object of reprimand. The Bible forbids neither the acquisition nor the possession of wealth, provided we hold it as God's stewards, and use it for his glory.

⁶⁹ Alford brings out the force of the original word, thus: "They who wish to berich."

Wisdom

Unprofitable.

For in much wisdom is much grief: and

he that increaseth knowledge increas-

eth sorrow.

Ecclesiastes 1:18

As it happeneth to the fool, so it hap-

peneth even to me; and why was I then

more wise?

Ecclesiastes 2:15

For what hath the wise more than the

fool?

                                                                               Ecclesiastes 6:8

This  wisdom   descendeth   not   from 

above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

James 3:15

Of great value.

Wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light

excelleth darkness.

Ecclesiastes 2:13

Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, 

and the man that getteth understanding.... 

She is more precious than rubies: 

and all the things thou canst desire are 

not to be compared unto her. 

                                                                         Proverbs 3:13,15

The wisdom that is from above is first

pure, then peaceable, . . . full of mercy

and good fruits.

James 3:17

The term "wisdom" is applied, in the scriptures, to at least three things: 1. Worldly craft, cunning, or policy; 2. Mere human knowledge or learning; 3. Enlightened piety. The first is always disapproved; the second, having in itself no moral quality, is not condemned save when it usurps the place of the third kind, or enlightened piety. The latter is invariably commended. In the case before us ethical wisdom is contrasted with carnal wisdom.

(CERTAINLY  KNOWLEDGE  AND  WISDOM  OF  THIS  WORLD  BRINGS  ALSO  GRIEF.  IF  YOU  KNOW  ABOUT  THE  THINGS  THAT  SADLY  GO  ON  IN  THE  WORLD,  THAT  BRINGS  SORROW  AND  PAIN  AND  SUFFERING,  YOU  ARE  PARTAKERS  OF  THE  SADNESS.  THOSE  WHO  WORK  DIRECTLY  IN  JOBS  TO  DO  WITH  ACCIDENTS,  STARVATION,  PLAGUES,  SEE  AND  KNOW  MORE  SORROW  THAN  THOSE  OF  US  WHO  SEE  NONE  OR  VERY  VERY  LITTLE  OF  THESE  SORROWS  OF  THE  WORLD.

AND  THERE  IS  A  WORLDLY  WISDOM  THAT  LEADS  TO  PRIDE,  AND  DECEPTION  FROM  THE  TRUTHS  OF  GOD.

WISDOM  THAT  IS  FROM  GOD  IS  TRULY  LIKE  PEARS  OF  GREAT  PRICE,  AND  MORE  PRECIOUS  THAN  RUBIES,  AND  ALL  THE  GOLD  IN  THE  WORLD;  IT  DOES  INDEED  GIVE  PEACE,  MERCY,  GOOD  FRUITS,  AND  INHERITANCE  IN  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  -  Keith Hunt)

TO BE CONTINUED

SO-CALLED  CONTRADICTIONS  OF  THE  BIBLE  #10

3. Duty of Man—To His Fellowmen

Adultery

Tolerated.

All the women children . . . keep alive

for yourselves.

Numbers 31:18

The Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord.

                                                                       Hosea 1:2

MISUNDERSTOOD….. ADULTERY  WAS  ALWAYS  SIN  -  Keith Hunt

Prohibited.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Exodus 20:14

Whoremongers   and   adulterers   God will judge.

Hebrews 13:4

Of the case in Numbers Keil says all the females were put to death who might possibly have been engaged in the licentious worship of Peor,70 so that the

⁷⁰ See Numbers 25:1-3.

Israelites might be preserved from contamination by that abominable idolatry. The young maidens were reserved to be employed as servants, or, in case they became proselytes, to be married.

With reference to Hosea, Delitzsch takes the prophet's marriages simply as "internal events, i.e. as merely carried out in that inward and spiritual intuition in which the word of God was addressed to him." In this view concur Bleek,71 Davidson,72 Hengstenberg, Kimchi, and Knobel; the first of whom dwells upon the unsuitableness of the outward acts to make the desired moral impression, while the last pronounces these acts peculiarly inconsistent with a character so severely moral as that of Hosea. Moreover, the word "whoredom," in the first part of the verse may mean, as it certainly does in the last part, simply spiritual whoredom, or idolatry.73

(IN  TAKING  A  WIFE  AND  HAVING  CHILDREN,  THEY  WOULD  BE  FROM  THE  WHOREDOM  AND  IDOLATROUS  ISRAEL,  SO  IN  THAT  SENCE  HE  WAS  TAKING  A  WIFE  AND  CHILDREN  OF  WHOREDOMS  -  Keith Hunt)

                        Assassination

Sanctioned.

Ehud said, I have a message from God unto thee. And he arose out of his seat. And Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the dagger, . . . and thrust it into his belly. . . . And Ehud escaped.

Judges 3:20-21, 26

Then Jael Heber's wife took a nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.

Judges 4:21

Forbidden.

Thou shalt not kill.

Exodus 20:13

If a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.

Exodus 21:14

The cases of Ehud and Jael are recorded without comment, simply as matters of history. It does not appear that God sanctioned their acts, although he overruled them for the welfare of his people. Keil admonishes us against supposing that Ehud acted under the impulse of the Spirit of God; also that, though he actually delivered Israel, there is no warrant for assuming that the means he selected were either commanded or approved by Jehovah.

The cases of Joab and Shimei 74 are sometimes adduced as examples of the sanction of assassination. The former was a "man of blood," a deliberate murderer. When the reasons of state, on account of which his punishment had been deferred, ceased to exist, that punishment was justly inflicted. Shimei was guilty

⁷¹Introd. to Old Testament, ii. 124.

⁷²Introd. to Old Testament, iii. 237.

⁷³Compare p. 79 

present work.
⁷⁴1 Kings 2:5-9.

of aggravated treason and rebellion. Being reprieved upon a certain condition, he wilfully violated that condition, and met the consequences of his temerity. Assassination is nowhere sanctioned in the Bible.

Avenging of blood

Provided for.

The revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer: when he meeteth him, he shall slay him.

Numbers 35:19

Virtually prohibited. 

Thou shalt not kill.

                                                            Dueteronomy 5:17

The practice of blood revenge, being one of long standing, and founded upon "an imaginary sense of honor," 75 was tolerated by Moses; but he took measures to prevent its abuse.

According to the original custom, as Burckhardt 76 says, "the right of blood-revenge is never lost; it descends, on both sides, to the latest generation." Moses restricted the avenging of blood to the nearest male relative of the deceased, and to the actual offender. These two, and no more, were concerned in the affair.

Then, strange as it may seem, such competent witnesses as Burckhardt, Mr. Layard, 77 and Prof. Palmer 78 bear unequivocal testimony to the salutary influence of the custom upon the tribes among whom it obtains. The latter traveller says: "Thanks to the terrible rigor of the 'Vendetta,' or blood feud, homicide is far rarer in the desert than in civilized lands." The "killing" forbidden in Deuteronomy is the crime of murder; the "blood revenge" of Numbers is the recognized punishment of that crime.

Baptism

Enjoined.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the

Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy

Ghost.

                                                                 Matthew 28:19

Neglected.

I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius

. . . . For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.

                                                        

                                                         1 Corinthians 1:14,17

Obviously, "Christ sent me not so much to baptize, as to preach the gospel." Paul did not neglect or undervalue baptism, but gave himself to the work of teaching, leaving his associates to administer baptism.

⁷⁵Michaelis, Com. on Mosaic Laws, i. 15-16.

⁷⁶Quoted by Macdonald, Introd. to Pent. ii. 323-324.

⁷⁷Nineveh and Babylon, p. 260 (New York edition).

⁷⁸Desert of the Exodus, p. 75 (Harpers' edition).

Burdens

Must bear others burdens.

Bear ye one another's burdens, and so

fulfil the law of Christ.

Galatians 6:2

Bear our own burdens. 

For every man shall bear his own burden. 

                                                                     Galatians 6:5

The original word for "burden" is not the same in the two cases. The different sense is indicated in accurate versions.

The first text means, "Be sympathetic and helpful to each other in the midst of infirmities and sorrows"; the second, "Every man must bear his own responsibility, under the Divine government."

Calling men "Father"

Forbidden.

And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters; for one is your Master, even Christ.

Matthew 23:9-10

Exemplified.

And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My

father, my father.

2 Kings 2:12

Yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.

1 Corinthians 4:15

The first texts simply forbid us to take any man as an infallible guide. We are to pay to no human being the homage and obedience which rightfully belong to Christ.

Alford: "The prohibition is against loving, and, in any religious matter, using such titles, signifying dominion over the faith of others."

(YES  IT  IS  IN  A  "RELIGIOUS"  MATTER:  WE  ARE  NOT  TO  GIVE  "FATHER"  TO  A  MAN  IN  THE  WAY  OF  A  RELIGIOUS  TITLE.  AND  SO  THE  LARGEST  "CHRISTIAN"  CHURCH  ON EARTH  DOES  JUST  THAT  -  Keith Hunt)

Capital punishment

Murderer executed.

Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man

shall his blood be shed.

Genesis 9:6

Spared.

A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear.

Genesis 4:12-13

By some unaccountable freak of exegesis, a well-known critic makes the first text the prohibition of capital punishment. Instead, it is a most explicit command, sanctioning it.

The case of Cain occurred some fifteen hundred years before this command was given to Noah.

(THE  FIRST  VERSE  IS  A  "GENERAL  STATEMENT"  -  GOD  HAD  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT  ON  "THE  BOOKS"  FOR  CERTAIN  LAWS  BROKEN.  BUT  TRUE  REPENTANCE  COULD  ABOLISH  THAT  SPECIFIC  DEATH  SENTENCE,  AS  THE  EXAMPLE  OF  DAVID  IN  THE  SETTING  OF  THE  WHOLE  SITUATION  WITH  BATHSHEBA;  GOD  SPARED  HIM  FROM  DEATH [HE  WAS  GIVEN  OTHER  PUNISHMENT]  UPON  HIS  DEEP  TRUE  REPENTANCE  -  Keith Hunt)

Captives

To be spared.

All the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee.. . . Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations.

                                        Deuteronomy 20:11,15

Put to death.

But of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: . . . That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the Lord your God.

                                        

                                        Deuteronomy 20:16,18

The general rule was to make captives; the exception was in the case of the "seven nations" of Canaan, to whom, on account of their "abominations," no quarter was to be given.79

Chastity tested

By one method.

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, ... If any man's wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him, etc.

Numbers 5:11-31

A different method.

If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her, and give occasions of speech against her, . . . and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid, etc.

                                       Deuteronomy 22:13-21

A late writer says that, in one case, "great latitude is afforded to the suspicious husband, while the woman's protection against him is only a superstitious appeal to Jehovah; in the other, a judicial investigation is instituted, giving the wife a more reasonable chance of justice."

But the two cases are quite different. The first text refers to unchastity of which the woman was supposed to have been guilty after marriage; the other, to similar misconduct of her's before the event. Hence different modes of investigation were adopted. In the first case the way prescribed—the only way to arrive at the truth in the matter—was, as Keil says, "to let the thing be decided by the verdict of God himself." In the other case, this would not be true.

Christians bearing weapons

Permitted.

But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.

Luke 22:36

Forbidden.

Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword, shall perish with the sword.

Matthew 26:52

⁷⁹ See further under "Enemies—treatment."

Some critics take the Greek word "machaira" as denoting, in the first text, not a "sword," but a "knife." Unquestionably, the word occasionally has this meaning in classical Greek and in the Septuagint.80 This is a possible, but not probable, interpretation.

The first text may be only another way of saying, "You must henceforth use such precautions, and make such provision for your needs, as men generally do." Wordsworth: "A proverbial expression, intimating that they would now be reduced to a condition in which the men of this world resort to such means of defence1. Alford: "The saying is both a description to them of their altered situation with reference to the world without, and a declaration that self-defence and self-provision would henceforward be necessary." Similarly Oosterzee, and many others.

The second quotation may have been a warning to Peter against a seditious or rebellious use of the sword against rulers. Or it may have been a dissuasive against his attempting to avenge the wrongs inflicted upon Jesus, coupled with the assurance that the latter's persecutors should speedily perish—as they did, in the destruction of their city. That is, rebellion against regularly constituted authorities, together with private, extra-judicial revenge, may be all that is contemplated and prohibited here.

(BAD  INTERPRETATIONS  HERE;  CONTEXT  READING  NOT  DONE.  THE  FIRST  IN  LUKE  22,  GOES  ON  TO  SAY  WHY  JESUS  SAID  THIS;  JESUS  WAS  FORETOLD  TO  BE  RECKONED  AMONG  THE  TRANSGRESSORS….. MEN  OF  VIOLENCE  WHO  HAVE  SWORDS.  IT  WAS  ALL  FOR  THE  CONTEXT  THAT  NOW  MUST  BE  THE  CONTEXT  IN  WHICH  JESUS  WAS  VIEWED,  AS  LEADER  OF  A  BAND  OF  WICKED  REBELLS.  THE  LAST  VERSE  WAS  AFTER  PETER  HAD  STUCK  OFF  AN  EAR  OF  ONE  MAN  COMING  TO  ARREST  JESUS.  AN  EMOTIONAL  ACT  OF  THOSE  WHO  OFTEN  LIVE  THEIR  LIVES  HAVING  KILLING  WEAPONS.  OR  EVEN  JOINING  A  NATION'S  WAR  MACHINE,  THE  SAYING  WOULD  STILL  APPLY…. IF  YOU  LIVE  A  LIFE  OF  VIOLENCE  WITH  THE  SWORD,  THE  CHANCES  ARE  YOU'LL  DIE  BY  THE  SWORD  -  Keith Hunt)

Circumcision

Instituted.

This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.

Genesis 17:10

And the Lord said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover: . . . No uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.

Exodus 12:43, 48

Discarded.

Is any called in uncircumcision? let him

not be circumcised.

1 Corinthians 7:18

Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.

Galatians 5:2

The rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic law, among which was circumcision, were intended to serve a temporary purpose. When Christ came the Mosaic ritual ceased to have any binding force. It had fulfilled the designed end.

⁸⁰ Liddell and Scott give, as one definition, a knife for surgical, sacrificial, and other purposes. In Genesis 22:6, 10; Judges 19:29, such a knife is clearly intended. In the last instance, however, Tischendorf adopts a different reading.

The first passages were addressed to Abraham and his seed. The second series was written after the rite of circumcision had been set aside by Divine authority.

Not to be omitted.

And the uncircumcised man child, ... that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.

Genesis 17:14

Neglected for forty years. 

All the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, . . . them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way.

Joshua 5:5, 7

Mr. Perowne, in Smith's Bible Dictionary, maintains that "the nation, while bearing the punishment of disobedience in its forty years' wandering, was regarded as under a temporary rejection by God, and was therefore prohibited from using the sign of the covenant."

This explanation is adopted by Calvin, Keil, and Hengstenberg, 81 and is probably the true one. On the same principle the parallel omission of the passover is to be explained.

Profitable.

A certain disciple was there, named Timotheus. . . . Him would Paul have to go forth with him; and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters.

Acts 16:1, 3

Useless.

Neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised: and that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage.

Galatians 2:3-4

Conybeare: The two cases were entirely different. In the latter, there was an attempt to enforce circumcision as necessary to salvation; in the former, it was performed as a voluntary act, and simply on prudential grounds.

Similarly Hackett and Alford. The principle involved is that we may sometimes make concessions to expediency which it would be wrong to make to arbitrary authority seeking to tyrannize over the conscience.

(IN  THE  FIRST  CASE  IT  WAS  "BECAUSE  IF  THE  JEWS"  -  EXPEDIENT  UNDER  THE  CIRCUMSTANCES  TO  NOT  OFFEND  THE  JEWS;  BUT  IN  REALITY  QUITE  UNNECESSARY  AS  PHYSICAL  CIRCUMCISION  UNDER  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  HAD  BEEN  ABROGATED  -  Keith Hunt)

Commutation for murder

Not allowed.

Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death.

Numbers 35:31

Permitted.

If the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death. If there be laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him.

                                                              Exodus 21:29-30

81 On Genuineness of Pentateuch, ii. 13-15.         

In the case of willful murder, as Abarbanel and Aben Ezra say, absolutely no commutation of the death penalty was allowed. But the second quotation does not refer to a case of "murder," properly so called. The element of malice was wanting. Gross and criminal carelessness, although resulting in the death of a human being, was yet less heinous than deliberate murder. Hence the judges might, if they saw fit, punish the offender by a heavy fine, instead of death.

This is, substantially, Keifs opinion.

(SOME  COMMENTS  BY  SOME  ARE  WRONG.  THE  EXAMPLE  OF  DAVID  IN  THE  CONTEXT  OF  BATHSHEBA  AND  HER  HUSBAND,  PROVES  NUMBERS  35:31  TO  BE  A  "GENERAL"  STATEMENT  LAW,  AS  DAVID  DID  NOT  FACE  THE  DEATH  PENALTY  IN  PLANNING  BATHSHEBA'S  HUSBAND'S  DEATH;  UPON  TRUE  REPENTANCE  GRACE  COULD  BE  SHOWN,  AND  OTHER  PUNISHMENT  GIVEN  -  Keith Hunt)

Contention and strife

Enjoined.

Strive to enter in at the strait gate.

Luke 13:24

Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel. . . . Now I beseech you, brethren, . . . that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.

Romans 15:20, 30

It was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith.

Jude 3

Forbidden.

A fool's lips enter into contention.

Proverbs 18:6

Charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit. . . . The  servant of the Lord

must not strive.

2 Timothy 2:14, 24

For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

James 3:16

These are interesting examples of the use of the same word in widely different senses. In the first series the words in question imply merely earnest effort; in the second, quarrelsome collision. We have elsewhere seen that the citation from Luke would be properly rendered, "Agonize to enter in at the strait gate."

Conversion of men

Man converts his fellow. 

In doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

1 Timothy 4:16

If any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death.

James 5:19-20

Converts himself.

Lest  they  see with  their  eyes,   and

hear with their ears, and understand

with their heart, and convert, and be

healed.

Isaiah 6:10

The first text brings to view the influence of another in causing a man to turn; the second, the man's own act in turning from the error of his way. Here is no contradiction.

(UNDERSTANDING  THERE  IS  A  BLINDNESS  FROM  GOD  THAT  KEEPS  PEOPLE  SPIRITUALLY  BLINDED;  HENCE  THE  REASON  JESUS  SAID  HE  SPOKE  IN  PARABLES  -  MOST  OF  HIS  DAY  AND  OUR  DAY  SINCE,  HAVE  NOT  BEEN  CALLED  AND  CHOSEN  TO  SALVATION  -  SEE  MY  STUDY  CALLED  "CALLED  AND  CHOSEN  -  WHEN?"  -  AND  "THE  GREAT  WHITE  JUDGMENT  DAY"  -  Keith Hunt)

Distrust

Enjoined.

Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye 

not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant. 

                                                                Jeremiah 9:4

Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and

whose heart departeth from the Lord.

                                                             Jeremiah 17:5

Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide.

                                                                  Micah 7:5

Precluded.

Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 

Charity never faileth.

                                                    1 Corinthians 13:7-8

The first and last texts [Jer. 9:4; Micah 7:5] imply a state of the "most wretched perfidiousness, anarchy, and confusion, in which the most intimate could have no confidence in each other, and the closest ties of relationship were violated and condemned." These two texts are not commands, but advice—equivalent to saying, "Such is the state of public morals that if you trust any man you will be deceived and betrayed."

Jeremiah 17:5 simply denounces that undue "trust in man" which causes one to depart from the Lord." None of these passages countenance uncharitable suspicion and distrust.

The first three texts graphically depict the workings and results of human depravity; the last citation sets forth the workings of Christian love. The demoralizing effects of sin are contrasted with the loving, trusting purity arising from the gospel.

Divorce

Largely allowed.

And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, 

and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest 

have her to thy wife; Then thou shalt bring her 

home to thy house... And after that thou shalt 

go in unto her, and be her husband, and she 

shall be thy wife. And it shall be, if thou have

 no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go 

whither she will.

                                               Deuteronomy 21:11-14

When, a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give in her hand, and send her out of his house. And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife.

                                Deuteronomy 24:1-2

Restricted.

Let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. 

For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away.

 

                                                         Malachi 2:15-16

Whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause 

of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: 

and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced 

committeth adultery.

                                                            Matthew 5:32

Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. 

                                                           Matthew 19:7-8

Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband, committeth adultery.

                                                            Luke 16:18

Between these two series of announcements a period of some fifteen hundred years intervened.

God, in the early ages of the Jewish nation, and with a view to prevent greater evils, allowed a limited freedom of divorce. Yet this "putting away," being opposed to the original, divine idea of marriage, was suffered solely on account of the hardness of men's hearts, and in comparatively rude and unenlightened times. We see here the wisdom of God in adapting his statutes and requirements to man's knowledge and position in the scale of civilization.

Besides, as Dr. Ginsburg 82 has observed, "the Mosaic law does not institute divorce, but, as in other matters, recognizes and most humanely regulates the prevailing patriarchal practice." The law, moreover, is shaped with a view to mitigate the evils of the practice, and ultimately to restrict it within the proper limits. At our Savior's coming, he, addressing himself to a more enlightened age, set the matter in the normal light, allowing divorce but for one cause.83

(OVERALL  CORRECT,  BUT  LIKE  MANY  GINSBURG  WAS  NOT  CORRECT  AS  "BUT  FOR  ONE  CAUSE."  SEE  MY  IN-DEPTH  STUDY  CALLED  "DIVORCE  AND  RE-MARRIAGE"  -  Keith Hunt)

Enemies—treatment

Ammonites tortured.

And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brickkiln: and thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon.

2 Samuel 12:31

And he brought out the people that were in it, and cut them with saws, and with harrows of iron, and with axes.

1 Chronicles 20:3

Cruelty prohibited.

But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.

Luke 6:35-36

⁸²Kitto's Cyclopaedia, iii. 82.

⁸³See, further, Professor Hovey, "Scriptural Doctrine of Divorce" (Boston, 1866). President Woolsey, "New Englander" (January, April, and July 1867).

If our version of the text from Chronicles is correct, David merely punished the Ammonites for the terrible cruelties which at a previous period his fellow-countrymen had suffered at their hands.84 Henderson, referring to these cruelties, says: "The object of the Ammonites was to effect an utter extermination of the Israelites inhabiting the mountainous regions of Gilead, in order that they might extend their own territory in that direction."

According to a Jewish tradition, David slew the Moabites,85 because they had treacherously murdered his parents, who had been confided to their care.86 Wahner, however, gives three explanations "according to which none of the vanquished Moabites were put to death."87

The probability is that our version of both texts of the first series, as well as the original of the second of those texts, is incorrect. Dr. Davidson says: "According to the present reading of Samuel, the meaning could not be he put them to. Nor could it be he put them under, but only he put them among or between?

Chandler,88 Dantz, and others, take the meaning to be that David enslaved the Ammonites, putting them to servile labor, in the midst of suitable implements—saws, harrows, axes, and the like. The word "vayyasar," "he sawed," in Chronicles, may be a mere copyists blunder for "vayyasem," "he put," as in Samuel. The latter word is found in seven of the mss. collated by Dr. Kennicott. The close resemblance of the two words, especially if the final letter, Mem, were imperfectly formed, accounts for the error of the transcriber.

We, therefore, submit that there is no evidence that David put the Ammonites to the torture. The meaning may be that, he put them to menial service, of the lowest and most laborious kind. If he killed any, it may have been, as Keil suggests, simply the "fighting men that were taken prisoners."

Finally, these passages are mere history, and the sacred writer makes himself responsible for nothing more in the case than the simple accuracy of the narrative.

Baal's prophets slain. 

And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them; and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.

1 Kings 18:40

Conciliatory measures enjoined.

In  meekness  instructing those  that

oppose themselves.

2 Timothy 2:25

⁸⁴Comp. 1 Samuel 11:2; Amos 1:13.

⁸⁵2 Samuel 8:2.

⁸⁶1 Samuel 22:3-4.

⁸⁷See Michaelis, Mos. Laws, i. 334-335.

⁸⁸Life of David, ii. 227-238 (Oxford, 1853).

These "prophets" were engaged in promoting treason and rebellion against the theocracy. Leniency shown to them, under these circumstances, would be nothing less than cruelty and treachery toward the highest welfare of the nation.

Keil: "To infer from this act of Elijah the right to institute a bloody persecution of heretics, would not only indicate a complete oversight of the difference between heathen idolaters and Christian heretics, but the same reprehensible confounding of the evangelical standpoint of the New Testament with the legal standpoint of the Old, which Christ condemned in his own disciples, in Luke 9:55-56."

Rawlinson: "Elijah's act is to be justified by the express command of the law, that idolatrous Israelites were to be put to death; and by the right of a prophet under the theocracy to step in and execute the law when the king failed in his duty."

Canaanites extirpated. 

But of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breathed; but thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and thejebusites; as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee: that they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the Lord your God.

                                       Deuteronomy 20:16-18

Killing forbidden. 

Thou shalt not kill.

                                                       Deuteronomy 5:17

The precept in Deuteronomy 5 does not prohibit the punishment of crime. It is to be noted that extraordinary severity was enjoined only in the cases above specified. To other nations the Israelites might propose conditions of peace, and enter into leagues with them. The reasons for this unexampled severity are the following:

1. The excessive wickedness of these seven tribes, the horrible "abominations" of which they were guilty. They burned their children in honor of their gods;89 they practised sodomy, bestiality, and all loathsome vices.90 Such was their unmitigated depravity, that the land is represented as "vomiting out her

⁸⁹ Leviticus 18:21.

⁹⁰ Leviticus 18:22-24; 20:23.

inhabitants," and "spewing them forth," as the stomach disgorges a deadly poison.91 On account of their loathsome vileness God cut them off by the sword of the Israelites.

2. Their contaminating example. This is the reason assigned in the text above quoted. For the same reason, "covenants" and "marriages" between the Israelites and these seven tribes were strictly prohibited.92 The disastrous consequences of the intercourse of the Israelites with Moab evince the wisdom of this prohibition.93 It was utterly impossible to live near these degraded idolaters without being defiled by the association.

This fact indicates to us the reason why the Israelites were instructed to "save alive nothing that breatheth."Absolute extermination of the idolaters was the only safeguard of the Hebrews. Any of the former who should be spared, would, owing to their perverse proclivities, prove a most undesirable and intractable element in the Hebrew theocracy.94 It was better for all concerned, that these idolatrous tribes should be laid under the ban; that is, altogether exterminated, that they might not teach the Israelites their abominations and sins.

As to the reflex influence, upon the Hebrews themselves, of their extermination of the Canaanites, Prof. Norton 95 bluntly observes: "There is no good moral discipline in the butchery of women and infants. It is not thus that men are to be formed to the service of God." To this, we may reply:

The positive and explicit command of Jehovah entirely changed the aspect of the case, and invested the Israelites, while executing this command with a solemn official responsibility as the instruments of divine justice.

The execution of this command may have been, in that comparatively rude and unenlightened age, the most effectual means of impressing upon the Hebrews the "exceeding sinfulness" of sin, together with Gods abhorrence 96 of the same, especially, in the form of "idolatry." As the Hebrews looked forth upon the devastated habitations, the slain animals, the dead bodies of the Canaanites, they could not but hear the solemn warning, "These are the consequences of sin. Behold how Jehovah hates iniquity."

WE  MAY  NOT  KNOW  THE  FULL  REASON  WHY  GOD  INSTRUCTED  THE  ISREALITES  TO  UTTERLY  DESTROY  THEM…. WE  MAY  HAVE  TO  WAIT  TILL  THE  COMING  OF  OUR  LORD  FOR  THIS  ANSWER.  BE  ASSURED  GOD  KNEW  WHY  HE  INSTRUCTED  THIS  WAY -  Keith Hunt

This view of the case is vigorously presented by Dr. Fairbairn,97 in words like the following: "What could be conceived so thoroughly fitted to implant in

⁹¹Leviticus 18:25, 28.

⁹²Deuteronomy 7:1-4.

⁹³Numbers 25:1-3.

⁹⁴Judges 2:1-3; 3:1-7.

⁹⁵Genuineness of Gospels, ii. p. cxxx.

⁹⁶Leviticus 20:23.

⁹⁷Typology, ii. 465-471.

their hearts an abiding conviction of the evil of idolatry and its foul abominations—to convert their abhorrence of these into a national, permanent characteristic, as their being obliged to enter on their settled inheritance by a terrible infliction of judgment upon its former occupants for polluting it with such enormities? Thus the very foundations of their national existence raised a solemn warning against defection from the pure worship of God; and the visitation of divine wrath against the ungodliness of men accomplished by their own hands, and interwoven with the records of their history at its most eventful period, stood as a perpetual witness against them, if they should ever turn aside to folly. Happy had it been for them, if they had been as careful to remember the lesson, as God was to have it suitably impressed upon their minds."

The language in which Mr. Carlyle 98 characterizes the severe and bloody measures employed by Cromwell against the Irish insurgents, may be applied to the Israelites in their executing the divine commission against the Canaanites—"An armed soldier, solemnly conscious to himself that he is the soldier of God, the Just—a consciousness which it well beseems all soldiers and all men to have always—armed soldier, terrible as death, relentless as doom; doing God's judgments on the enemies of God! It is a phenomenon not of joyful nature; no, but of awful; to be looked at with pious terror and awe."

Viewing the Israelites in this aspect, as the consciously commissioned ministers of heavens vengeance upon an utterly corrupt and imbruted race, their case is lifted completely out of the common range of warfare, and becomes entirely unique—no longer to be judged of by the ordinary ethical standards.

A late author, who could not be charged with fanaticism—Dr. Thomas Arnold—has the following emphatic defence of the Israelites, and of their warfare of extermination: "And if we are inclined to think that God dealt hardly with the people of Canaan in commanding them to be so utterly destroyed, let us but think what might have been our fate, and the fate of every other nation under heaven, at this hour, had the sword of the Israelites done its work more sparingly. Even as it was, the small portions of the Canaanites who were left and the nations around them so tempted the Israelites by their idolatrous practices that we read continually of the whole people of God turning away from his service. But had the heathen lived in the land in equal numbers, and still more, had they intermarried largely with the Israelites, how was it possible, humanly speaking, that any sparks of the light of God's truth should have survived to the

⁹⁸Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, ii. 53 (second edition).

99Sermon iv. "Wars of the Israelites." See, also, Stanley's Jewish Church. Part i. Lect. xi.

coming of Christ. . . . The whole earth would have been sunk in darkness; and if Messiah had come he would not have found one single ear prepared to listen to his doctrine nor one single heart that longed in secret for the kingdom of God. But this was not to be, and therefore the nations of Canaan were to be cut off utterly. The Israelites' sword, in its bloodiest executions, wrought a work of mercy for all the countries of the earth to the very end of the world.... In these contests on the fate of one of these nations of Palestine the happiness of the human race depended. The Israelites fought not for themselves only, but for us. Whatever were the faults of Jephthah or of Samson, never yet were any men engaged in a cause more important to the whole worlds welfare. . . . Still they did Gods work; still they preserved unhurt the seed of eternal life, and were the ministers of blessing to all other nations, even though they themselves failed to enjoy it."

That these words of an eminent scholar and profound thinker are based upon sound philosophical principles no penetrating mind can fail to perceive. Nor is Dr. Arnold alone in his opinion. Others, of a different creed, and looking from a different point of view, have reached substantially the same conclusions. That great German critic, Ewald,100 treating upon this topic, has impressively said: "It is an eternal necessity that a nation such as the great majority of the Canaanites then were, sinking deeper and deeper into a slough of discord and moral perversity, must fall before a people roused to a higher life by the newly-wakened energy of unanimous trust in Divine power." And Dr. David-101 "In a certain sense, the Spirit of God is a spirit of revenge, casting down and destroying everything opposed to the progress of man's education in the knowledge and fear of the Lord."

(ALL  OF  WHAT  IS  SAID,  REALLY  DOES  NOT  ANSWER  FULLY  THE  QUESTION;  WHY  WOMEN  AND  CHILDREN?  MODERN  GENETICS  MAY  YET  GIVE  THE  FULL  ANSWER.  HUMAN  DNA  IS  MOVEABLE;  CAN  A  PEOPLE  SO  DEEP  IN  SINS  AND  PERVERSENESS,  OVER  SOME  GENERATIONS,  ALTER  THE  DNA  SO  IT  EFFECTS  NEW  BEGOTTEN  CHILDREN  IMMEDIATELY  AFTER  CONCEPTION?  MAYBE  MODERN  SCIENCE  WILL  GIVE  THE  FULL  ANSWER,  OR  WE  SHALL  WAIT  FOR  THE  SAVIOR  TO  RETURN,  THEN  WE  SHALL  KNOW  THESE  THINGS  EVEN  AS  WE  ARE  KNOW  -  Keith Hunt) 

Children slain.

And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.

2 Kings 2:23-24

Same loved.

And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. . . . And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them. 

                  

                                                            Mark 10:13-14,16

¹⁰⁰Hist. of Israel, ii. 237. ¹⁰¹Introd. to Old Testament,i. 444.

1. In the person of Elisha, God himself, whose servant the prophet was, was most wantonly and wickedly insulted.

2. The word "nearim," rendered "children" in Kings, may, as a late rationalistic commentator admits, denote a "youth nearly twenty years old." Gesenius says precisely the same; adding that it is also applied to "common soldiers," just as we in English style them, the "boys," the "boys in blue," etc.

Fuerst gives, among other definitions, a person who is twenty years of age, a youth, a young prophet; generally a servant of any kind, a shepherd, a young warrior. The same combination of words as above, "naar qaton," is applied to Solomon102 after he began to reign at some twenty years of age. Krummacher and Cassel translate the expression in the text, "young people." Hence the theory that these young scoffers were really "little children" at their play is untenable. They were old enough, and depraved enough, to merit the terrible fate which overtook them.

3. Elisha did not slay the young reprobates, nor did he cause the bears to come forth. God sent them. The same Being who sometimes cuts off wild, wicked youth by disease or accident, in the present instance punished sinful parents by the violent death of their reprobate children. Prof. Rawlinson suggests that a signal example may have been greatly needed at this time to check the growth of irreligion; and that, as above intimated, the wicked parents were punished by deprivation of offspring.

Edomite hated.

He slew of Edom in the valley of salt ten thousand. . . . And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, yet not like David his father.

2 Kings 14:7, 3

Not to be hated.

Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite; for

he is thy brother.

Deuteronomy 23:7

As to this characteristically "profound" discrepancy, alleged by an infidel pamphleteer, it may be observed: 1. Not every act of Amaziah's life is commended above. He did, in the main, that which was right, but less uniformly or zealously than David. 2. It does not follow that because Amaziah chastised and reconquered the rebellious Edomites he necessarily "abhorred" them.

¹⁰²1 Kings 3:7. See also the word "1573 applied to Isaac, Genesis 22:5; to Joseph, compare Genesis 29:4-6 and 41:12; to Absalom, 2 Samuel 18:5, and to the prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah 1:5.

Enemies cursed.

Let their way be dark and slippery: and let the angel of the Lord persecute them. . . . Let destruction come upon him at unawares; and let his net that he hath hid catch himself: into that very destruction let him fall.

Psalm 35:6, 8

Let death seize them, and let upon them go down quick into hell.

Psalm 55:15

Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them. . . . Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness.

Psalm 69:24,27

Let them be confounded and troubled for ever: yea, let them be put to shame, and perish.

Psalm 83:17

Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand. When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg.

Psalm 109:6-10

Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.

Psalm 109:12-13

As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones. Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.

Psalm 109:18-19

O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.

Psalm 137:8-9

If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.

                                          1 Corinthians 16:22

Should be loved.

Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despite-fully use you, and persecute you.

Matthew 5:44

Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.

Luke 23:34

And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.

Acts 7:60

Some critics take these imprecatory texts as mere predictions: "Let his days be few" being equivalent to "His days shall be few." These predictions would also imply the speakers acquiescence in the foreseen will of Jehovah: "It is the Divine will, therefore let it be so."

Others take these passages as historical, rather than didactic. It is said that, as the Bible relates impartially the bad as well as the good deeds of the patriarchs, so it does not suppress their wrong thoughts and sayings, but "gives a Shakespearian picture of all the moral workings of the heart." It is precisely this, its fidelity to nature, keeping back nothing, extenuating nothing, which gives the sacred volume its hold upon the confidence of mankind. Mr. Barnes admits an element of truth in this explanation, and Dr. Tholuck distinctly holds that a "personal feeling has occasionally mixed itself with David's denunciations of the wicked."

Still others think that the duty of forgiveness was not taught nor understood clearly in David's time, as it was in the latter dispensation. This hypothesis, as we have seen elsewhere, is supported by the analogous cases of some other important doctrines and duties, which were revealed progressively, by degrees, as the world was prepared to receive them. In a word, the Psalmist may not have understood, in all its length and breadth, the Christian duty of forgiveness. This explanation is adopted by several eminent authors. Richard Baxter103 speaks very strongly on this point. So does Mr. Cooper,104 who says of the Israelite worthies, "these great and good men were not yet acquainted with the perfect rule of charity, or love to enemies, to be taught by a suffering Saviour."

Mr. Warington,105 with reference to the scripture, asserts that Christ himself lays down the principle, in the plainest manner, that it may contain precepts which, regarded in the abstract, are opposed to God's will, but which were rendered necessary by the imperfect spiritual state of those to whom they were given. In which case this temporary adaptation is to be regarded as a sufficient explanation for the precept given.

Dr. Thomas Arnold106 deems it a most important exegetical principle "that the revelations made to the patriarchs were only partial, or limited to some particular points, and that their conduct must be judged of not according to our knowledge, but to theirs." Hence, he says, we may "recognize the divinity of the Old Testament, and the holiness of its characters, without lying against our consciences and our more perfect revelation by justifying the actions of those

¹⁰³ Quoted by Davidson, Introd. to Old Testament, ii. 306.

¹⁰⁴"Four Hundred Texts of Holy Scripture," p. 30.

¹⁰⁵ On Inspiration, p. 253.

¹⁰⁶Miscel. Works, pp. 151, 288 (Appleton's edition).

characters as right, essentially and abstractedly, although they were excusable, or in some cases actually virtuous, according to the standard of right and wrong which prevailed under the law."

Chrysostom,107 long before, referring to the Israelites, had said, "Now, a higher philosophy is required of us than of them. . . . For thus they are ordered to hate not only impiety, but the very persons of the impious, lest their friendship should be an occasion of going astray. Therefore he cut off all intercourse and freed them on every side."

Prof. Moses Stuart:108 "The Old Testament morality, in respect to some points of relative duty, is behind that of the Gospel. Why then should we regard the Old Testament as exhibiting an absolute model of perfection, in its precepts and its doctrines? In some respects, most plainly this is not true."

Elsewhere, he says, "The Psalms that breathe forth imprecations are appealed to by some as justifying the spirit of vengeance under the gospel, instead of being regarded as the expression of a peculiar state of mind in the writer, and of his imperfect knowledge with regard to the full spirit of forgiveness" These last are very pregnant words.

It remains to be observed that the imprecatory texts are explicable on the hypothesis of their full inspiration. The following points must be taken into account.

1. Great allowance must be made for the strong hyperboles and intense vehemence of Oriental poetry. Where we should ask that the Divine honor and justice might be vindicated, the Eastern poet would pray, "That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, And the tongue of thy dogs in the same."

The petitions quoted above would, if stated in unimpassioned occidental style, be greatly modified, and seem far less objectionable.

2. The Psalmist merges his own private griefs in the wrongs inflicted upon the people of God—counts the Lord's enemies as enemies to himself. He cries out, "Do not I hate them, O Lord, which hate thee? I count them mine enemies." He identified his own interests with those of his heavenly King. "He was situated like the English statesman, who in an attack upon himself sees the crown and government to be actually aimed at." From this representative character of the Psalmist arises the terrible intensity of his language.

107On 1 Corinthians 13, and alluding to Psalm 139:22.

108 On History of Old Testament Canon, pp. 416,409 (Revised edition, 389,382). Compare his remarks, pp. 404-405 (Revised edition, 377-378).

3. There is a normal indignation against sin. There are times when "forbearance ceases to be a virtue," when the sense of outraged justice must find expression. Not infrequently a righteous indignation against evildoers unsheathes the patriot's sword, and kindles the poet's lyre. In the recent history of our own country the imprecatory Psalms seemed none too strong nor stern to serve as a vehicle for the loyalty of our citizens, in giving voice to their indignation, horror, and detestation at the crimes perpetrated by traitors and rebels.

Prof. B. B. Edwards109 says in substance, that resentment against evildoers is so far from being sinful, that we find it exemplified in the meek and spotless Redeemer himself (Mark 3:5). If the emotion and its utterance were essentially sinful, how could Paul wish the enemy of Christ to be accursed ("anathema," 1 Corinthians 16:22); or say of his own enemy, Alexander the coppersmith, "The Lord reward him according to his works" (2 Timothy 4:14); and especially how could the spirits of the just in heaven call on God for vengeance (Revelation 6:10)?

4. It is right to pray for the overthrow of the wicked; as a means, and not as an end, when we are satisfied that less evil will result from that overthrow than would be occasioned by their triumph. David felt that the destruction of those wicked persons, while not to be desired per se, would nevertheless result in the prevention of incalculable injury to the race. Of two evils he chose the infinitely less. Prayer for the overthrow of the wicked was prayer for the triumph of righteousness.110

(YES  THERE  IS  A  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  THE  OLD  AND  NEW  COVENANTS.  THE  OLD  WAS  BUILT  UPON  THE  CARNALITY  OF  THE  ISRAELITES;  ONLY  A  FEW  HAD  THE  SPIRIT  OF  GOD [NUMBER  11].  MANY  THINGS  WERE  "ALLOWED"  UNDER  THE  OLD  COVENANT  WHICH  ARE  NOT  ALLOWED  UNDER  THE  NEW  COVENANT [I.E. EASY  DIVORCE  WAS  ALLOWED  UNDER  THE  OLD,  NOT  SO  UNDER  THE  NEW].  WE  ALSO  HAVE  UNDER  THE  OLD,  A  "NATION"  UNDER  GOD;  SO-CALLED  CHURCH  AND  STATE  WERE  ONE.  THERE  WERE  ENEMY  NATIONS  ALL  AROUND  ISRAEL,  WANTING  HER  DEATH,  HER  DESTRUCTION,  AND  MAKING  WAR  WITH  HER.  UNDER  ALL  THIS  CONTEXT,  IT  SHOULD  THEN  NOT  BE  SURPRISING  DAVID  [AND  OTHER]  HAD  AT  TIMES  THIS  MIND-SET  OF  HATING  SINFUL  NATIONS  WHO  WERE  OPPOSED  TO  THE  GOD  OF  THE  NATION  OF  ISRAEL,  AND  DESIRING  THEM  TO  REAP  WHAT  THEY  HAVE  SOWN  AGAINST  ISRAEL  AND  THE  TRUE  GOD.  THE  NEW  COVENANT  HAS  NONE  OF  THIS  CONTEXT  BUT  IS  INDIVIDUALS  SCATTERED  HERE  AND  THERE  AS  THE  BODY  OF  CHRIST.  THE  NEW  CARRIES  A  HIGHER  STANDARD  THAN  THE  OLD.  THE  NEW  IS  NOT  A  LITERAL  NATION  SURROUNDED  BY  NATIONS  WANTING  TO  MAKE  WAR  THEM.  YET  AS  SHOWN  PAUL  AND  OTHERS  DID  AT  TIMES  PULL  NO  PUNCHES  IN  PUTTING  PEOPLE  UNDER  THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  GOD  FOR  CORRECTION  AND  REPROOF,  ALWAYS  WITH  THE  LOVING  MIND  OF  WANTING  THEM  TO  REPENT  OF  THE  WICKEDNESS  THEY  WERE  IN  -  Keith Hunt)

Treated kindly.

Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed

him; if he thirst, give him drink.

Romans 12:20

Put to pain.

For in so doing thou shalt heap coals of

fire on his head.

Romans 12:20

Baur asserts that in the latter clause Paul's former persecuting spirit crops out, that he cannot repress here the desire to inflict pain upon an enemy. We give Baur credit for too much acuteness to suppose that he was not perfectly aware of the utter disingenuousness of this objection.

The figurative language of the apostle means simply, "By showing kindness to thine enemy thou shalt excite in him such pain of conscience as shall lead him to repentance and reformation." The expression is a proverbial one. The Arabs say, conveying similar ideas, "He roasted my heart," or, "He kindled a

¹⁰⁹See Bib. Sacra (February, 1844).

¹¹⁰ See Professor Park in Bib. Sacra, Vol. xix. pp. 165-210. Also, Smith's Bible Diet., iii. 2625-

2628.

fire in my heart."111 The pain was viewed by Paul as a means, not as an end; the ultimate object being the conversion of the "enemy."

Addressed with ridicule and irony.

And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.

1 Kings 18:27

And the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramothgilead to battle, or shall we forbear? And he answered him, Go, and prosper: for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king.

1 Kings 22:15

And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria.

2 Kings 6:19

With mild words.

Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despite-fully use you, and persecute you

Matthew 5:44

Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.

Romans 12:14

Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not.

1 Peter 2:23

Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise, blessing. 

                                                                       1 Peter 3:9

In the case of Elijah ridicule was a fit weapon for exposing the folly and absurdity of idol worship. The prophet employed it with terrible effect.

As to the case of Micaiah; Richter, Keil, Bertheau, and A. Fuller 112 suppose that the words were uttered with ironical gestures and a sarcastic tone. He delivers the words, says Rawlinson, "in so mocking and ironical a tone that the king cannot mistake his meaning, or regard his answer as serious." The succeeding verse shows that Ahab instantly detected the irony.

Bahr, however, takes the language as a reproof for the kings hypocritical question, thus: "How camest thou to the idea of consulting me, whom thou dost not trust? Thy prophets have answered thee as thou desirest. Do, then, what they have approved. Try it. March out. Their oracles have far more weight with thee than mine."

Elishas statement is regarded by Keil and Rawlinson, apparently, simply in the light of a "stratagem of war," by which the enemy are deceived.

It is to be remembered, also, that Elishas motive was a benevolent one, for he saved the lives of those whom he had taken captive in this wonderful manner;

¹¹¹ See Stuart on Romans12:20

¹¹²Works, i. 619.

thus putting a stop to the marauding forays of the Syrians. Thenius: "There is no untruth in the words of Elisha; for his home was not in Dothan, where he was only residing temporarily, but in Samaria; and the words 'to the man may well mean, to his house." As Bahr has observed, Elisha took the blinded Syrians under his protection, repaid evil with good, and by this very means showed them the man whom they were seeking.

Some regard the prophet's language as mere irony.

Epithets of opprobrium

Forbidden.

Whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

Matthew 5:22

Their use sanctioned.

Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?

Matthew 23:17

Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

Luke 24:25

Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die.

                                                           1 Corinthians 15:36

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth?

Galatians 3:1

The term "moros," in the texts from Matthew is much more severe than the corresponding terms in the other places. He who "knew what was in man," saw that this word was exactly descriptive of the moral condition of the scribes and Pharisees.

As in many other cases, the spirit rather than the words is aimed at in the prohibition. That is, we are not prohibited calling men "fools" considerately and appropriately; we are forbidden to do so in the spirit of malevolent contempt. This obvious principle relieves the whole difficulty.

Fear of persecutors

Forbidden.

And I say unto you my friends, Be not

afraid of them that kill the body, and

after that have no more that they can do.

Luke 12:4

Exemplified.

After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: 

for he would not walk in Jewry, because 

the Jews sought to kill him.

John 7:1

Jesus did not shun death, but avoided dying prematurely. When his "hour had come," when his earthly mission was accomplished, he met death with fortitude and composure. To die before the time would have measurably defeated his great purpose.

………………..

WELL THAT IS ENOUGH FROM ONE BOOK. 

THERE ARE AT LEAST FOUR BOOKS THAT DEAL WITH THE SO-CALLED CONTRADICTIONS OF THE BIBLE.